How to Train Your Jocks
by RinaJinx
Summary: Hiccup has his fair share of problems for a first-year, an overbearing father pushing the family business on him, smuggling his pet Toothless into his dorm, hiding his secret minor program and a runaway ecologist mother. His life only gets more complicated when he moves into his new dorm, filled with mostly students on sports scholarships, one being a girl named Astrid. Modern AU.
1. Chapter 1

**This is mostly for me to practice writing, I'm not very good at narrative so bare with me, my story is usually better than my ability to write. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, will be mostly written in Hiccups point of view. **

**I will edit out mistakes if any are pointed out to me, thanks for reading :)**

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><p>There was a grace and control to the way she ran, immediately blowing past the rest of the sprinters, she did it with ease, without any sign of discomfort. I could see her eyes locked onto the finish line, burning with determination, her blonde braid swayed with every bound and I could see her muscles contracting in her thin legs as they created dust clouds along the track.<p>

"Hiccup"

I snapped my head around "Huh?"

"The dorm." Fishlegs pointed with his free hand. "It's this way."

I nodded, hiking my box of belongings higher onto my chest. "Right, sorry."

"You like sports or something?" He asked glancing back at me.

"No."

He let out an awkward laugh. "I meant watching, not participating."

I shrugged. "Not really."

"That's too bad, we're pretty much in the middle of all the athletic facilities here." Fishlegs stopped to point at a grey building not too far in the distance. "The dorm is over there, it's pretty much only populated by students on sports scholarships."

"How'd you end up here?"

"It was one of the cheaper buildings, and it's actually not too far from where most of our computer classes are held." I looked around at all the students ambling about, carrying their big duffle bags and sports equipment. "Plus, it's pretty close to the main subway line, it's one of the better low-cost buildings, my mom found it for me."

Toothless peaked his head out of my cardboard box and I quickly nudged him back in. "Just a little longer, bud."

"You know," Fishlegs began, throwing back another glance. "You can stay as long as you want. I don't mind sharing a room, and the extra money is always nice."

"I don't need long, just enough time to find a new place." I said shuffling the box around in my arms. "My dad wouldn't have let me move out if I hadn't told him I already had a place set up, and he probably would have found Toothless if I stayed much longer." Wrong. I didn't want my dad to find Toothless, that was true, but it was mostly an excuse, I thought I could handle school and my dad, I was wrong. I couldn't spent one more day hearing about the company, about everything he wanted me to do with it once I took over. Note the 'once' instead of 'if'.

"Oh yeah, I know." He said propping the dorm's doors open. "But you're welcome to stay, it'll be nice having someone I have things in common with around for once."

We lumbered up the stairs onto the sixth floor and squeezed through the sweaty muscle bound jocks and finally entered Fishlegs' room. It was small as expected with two beds on opposite sides of the room, each with a desk at the end. We plonked my boxes onto the bed with a sigh of relief.

"Aren't you a bit late to be moving in?" Two guys eyed me from across the hall as they leaned up against their door frame. "Classes started two weeks ago."

"I decided the dorms were better than home." I said avoiding their eyes.

The stocky guy looked over at Fishlegs. "Are you going to introduce us or what?"

"Oh, yeah," Fishlegs looked at me nervously while gesturing. "Hiccup, Snotlout, and behind him-" He pointed towards the slouching, blonde dreadlock toting guy behind Snotlout. "He's Tuffnut."

"Howdy" I said flashing them an awkward grin.

Snotlout jerked his head at me. "You a computer nerd too?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"Hah, I can see 'em from a mile away." He gloated clapping his hands together.

Tuffnut smirked. "I know right?" They highfived each other triumphantly.

I stepped towards them and grabbed the door. "Yeah, well, I need to pack-"

"Hey Astrid-" Snotlout turned away from me and wandered off. I leaned forward and glimpsed down the hall and saw 'Astrid' she was the track girl, in all her glory, glistening with sweat, just three rooms down. Her golden hair clung to her skin and her chest heaved in and out steadily, a group had amassed around her as she fiddled with her keys.

"Hiccup?"

I snapped my head around to look over at Fishlegs. "Sorry." I mumbled.

"It's weird right?" He said sitting down onto his bed. "Being around all the jocks, I thought so too, you get used to it."

"Right." I shut the door.

"Sorry about Snotlout, he's just like that, he bugged me a bit when I first moved in."

I pulled Toothless out and set him onto the ground. "Will I get used to him?"

Fishlegs laughed. "I doubt it, but he'll start ignoring you soon enough, it only took him a few days to start ignoring me."

"And-" I turned away and pretended to rummage through my things. "Who's Astrid?"

"Astrid? She's another sports scholarship student. Really popular, I hear she's one of the best athletes on campus."

I turned around. "Track right?"

"Uh, I'm not sure, I hear she does a lot."

Toothless purred and rubbed against my leg, I knelt down to pet him. I felt nervous, I tried to think about other things, school, my dad, anything, but my mind kept drifting back to Astrid. I knew the more I tried to stop thinking about her, the more I would. It was so dumb, getting the jitters over someone I didn't know, pathetic even. Self-pity, at least there's one thing I know I'm good at.

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><p>"Hey Astrid-" I didn't have to look, I knew who it was. As soon as I heard his voice I yanked my keys out and started looking through them. Snotlout leaned against the wall nonchalantly and wiggled his eyebrows at me. "You coming to the common room tomorrow? We're throwing a little soiree, just down the hall at the end."<p>

I shot him a quizzical look. "Do you have permission to do that?"

"Baby, I don't need permission."

"Right." I scoffed, sticking my key into the door and unlocking it. "Good luck with that then."

He shifted as I entered the room. "It's at six, see you there."

I shut the door behind me and sighed, throwing my bag onto the floor. "I know you heard him, why didn't you open the door?"

Ruffnut sat on her bed texting away. "Busy." She grinned at me. "Plus it's amusing, you going to his little party?"

"It won't be so funny when he starts hitting on you." I said grabbing some clothes from off of my bed. "And no, I'm not going."

She looked up from her phone. "You should, it won't just be him."

I pulled my tank top over my head and threw it into my hamper. "Duh, that doesn't make it much better." I put on a clean t-shirt, and started pulling down my shorts.

"Most of the building will be there." Ruff said stuffing her phone back into her pocket. "I bet there'll be a lot of hotties."

I slipped into a skirt. "I don't know, I might have to study."

"Oh come on." Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "Do you hear yourself? Try to have some fun, all you do is workout and study, school barely even started."

I opened my laptop and sat on my bed. "Maybe that's what's fun to me."

"C'mon, don't make me go by myself." She said giving me her best pouty face.

I sighed. "One hour, that's all I promise."

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><p>A little voice in my head told me to ignore the noise as I walked up the stairs, the yells and hoots and chatter that emanated from my floor. I should have turned around the instant I heard it, I should have gone to the library or the park or anywhere. When I reached the top I could see the door to the common room ajar. <em>Don't bother. It isn't worth your time.<em> Of course I looked, everyone always looks when they shouldn't. I peered in, the tables and chairs had been messily rearranged and various bottles and bags were scattered around the room. In the middle of the room Snotlout and another beefy looking sports student sat on opposite sides of a table, arm wrestling.

"Hey, it's the new kid." Snotlout said looking over at me. Everyone turned their head to oggle at me, this must have been taken directly from my nightmares, a group of hulky jocks all staring at me. "Join us, you can go next."

It took me a few seconds to understand, but when the realization hit, it hit hard. "Oh, no, I'm fine, I mean, I don't really arm wrestle."

"Don't be a wimp, it's not that hard." Tuffnut said pushing me into the room.

My brain was thrown into full panic mode. "No, I really don't-"

"What are you guys doing?" I thought that it couldn't get much worse than this, oh boy was I wrong. I turned and there standing behind me, was Astrid.

"You made it." Snotlout beamed, and the girl standing beside Astrid glanced around the room and nudged Astrid in the arm.

"What are you doing?" She repeated.

Snotlout shrugged, trying to act cool. "Just arm wrestling, but chickenshit over here is trying to weasel out of it." He said gesturing to me.

I knew what was going on, Snotlout was trying to look better in front of Astrid by making me look worse. Was this going to be her first impression of me? Chickenshit boy? The coward who wouldn't even arm wrestle? My brain was racing a mile a minute, would it be more humiliating to wuss out or to agree and lose? Because there was no doubt in my mind that I would lose. "I'll do it." Regret, immediate regret. That's what this whole fiasco has been, regretful actions with a side order of poor judgement.

They all cheered and hooted. "Who will be our challenger?" Snotlout roared.

I hoped for the biggest bulkiest most muscular guy they could find, someone who obviously couldn't be beaten, maybe that would dull my humiliation. Maybe Astrid would consider me even a little brave for taking him on, "Hey Astrid, you want to take a go?" or maybe not. Every time I thought my situation couldn't get any worse the gods wanted to prove me wrong. So I sat at the table with her trying to think of any technique or strategy that would help me seem less pathetic and weak. I had never arm wrestled, I didn't even know how to position my arm properly let alone any good techniques, I decided to lock my arm in place. I knew I wouldn't win, so trying to push her arm down would be pointless, I just wanted to last as long as possible. We gabbed each other's hands and waited for the go ahead. My failure was immediate. She slammed my arm down before I even knew what was happening, bad right? You don't even know the half of it. As soon as my arm hit the table, in the midst of the cheering and laughter I felt a surge of pain in my shoulder. I winced and grabbed it with my left hand. "Ouch!"

Astrid retracted her arm. "Did I hurt you?" She asked.

"...I think you broke my arm." Everyone roared with laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all the faves and follows! Don't be shy to post reviews I really appreciate them and I will try to respond to as many as I can, any suggestion or corrections are welcomed. I try to research everything I talk about (Such as how residence works) but obviously it's not all perfect.**

**I want to know if you want paced releases, like once a week, or for me to post as soon as I finish writing, which will be faster sometimes but if I get writers block I will have no buffer to fall back on.**

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><p>My arm wasn't broken, but honestly, it might as well have been. Everyone thought it was broken, no matter what I told them. It was a shoulder sprain, not nearly as bad as a broken arm but I had to wear a sling for three weeks, and to most people a sling just meant a broken arm. Everyone suddenly knew who I was, though I knew it was temporary, I was well known around campus as 'the kid who broke his arm wrestling with Astrid', and yes, people really called me that. I guess 'the kid who broke his arm arm wrestling with Astrid' was too much of a mouthful, and before first period the next day, I was 'the kid dumb enough to get into a fight with Astrid'. My incredible luck astounded me sometimes.<p>

"Why'd you even agree to it?" Fishlegs asked as he typed away on his computer.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I've been asking myself the same question all day." Chickenshit would have been better, way better, than being remembered for this. "Did you hear anything while I was in class?"

"Oh, plenty." He said. "Snotlout certainly enjoyed it, he was prancing around cracking jokes about it, I think it actually made him like Astrid more."

"And Astrid?"

"Nothing from her, she isn't really that talkative."

I could feel excess embarrassment and shame creeping over me. Of course Astrid didn't say anything, why would she care? She had only said two things to me, 'Did I hurt you?' and after my broken arm proclamation she blurted out a simple 'You serious?'. After a few people had disregarded my injury saying things like 'Oh please, you're fine' or 'You just need a workout' I decided to leave, and once I had returned, arm in sling, I got quite a few laughs to the face. Apparently their disbelief followed by my injury being real, was _funny_ to them. Maybe it was funny to Astrid too, but it was probably more likely that she didn't give a rat's ass about it. My ringtone went off and I pulled it out of my pocket. "Great." An even deeper scowl spread across my face as I answered the phone. "Dad, hey."

_"The hospital called, you broke your arm?"_

"Shoulder sprain." I corrected.

_"What happened? How did you break it?"_

I sighed. "I sprained it."

_"How did it happen, Hiccup."_

"I was arm wrestling."

_"You can't arm wrestle."_

"Yeah, I figured that out, thanks." Fishlegs gave me a questioning expression from across the room and I returned it by mouthing 'blah blah blah'. "Dad, I have to study, and you're taking up my only usable arm."

_"Be careful alright? No more arm wrestling."_

"Ok, bye."

_"Try not to move it for a while."_

"Ok, bye." I repeated more sternly before hanging up. I leaned back onto my bed. "I should start looking for a new place to stay."

"Just because of the broken arm thing?"

"Sprained." I corrected.

Fishlegs shook his head. "It'll be fine, the whole thing will blow over before you know it."

Maybe the arm had something to do with it, I'll admit it, I was considering staying. This whole dumb situation made me realize that this fantasy I had built in my mind, of sticking around and eventually getting to know Astrid was a lost cause to begin with. I'd like to think any chance I had with her was buried that day, but if I want to be honest with myself, I never had a chance in the first place. I had been delusional, blinded by her pretty face and her long legs.

"Hey, there's no need to sit around here and feel shitty about it, lets go out or something, get something to eat."

I sat up and stood from my bed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

We left the dorms and began walking towards the subway, it was pretty cool out, still autumn weather. "What do you want to get?" I asked as we reached the crosswalk. "Pizza?"

"There's a really good food truck over there, everyone around here eats there." Fishlegs said gesturing with his elbow, while keeping his hands in his pockets. "They have hot dogs, burgers, lots of stuff."

I looked in the direction he had pointed to, and I saw Astrid and Tuffnut standing by the truck eating burgers as they chatted. My stomach clenched up and I instinctively shuffled a little behind Fishlegs. Then to my horror she turned around and looked over at me, my eyes darted down to my shoes. Shit. She caught me looking at her, she probably thinks I'm creepy, if I go over there now I will look even more like a creep. "Uh, I don't really feel like truck food, can we go somewhere else?" I said to Fishlegs while trying to keep myself from looking towards her.

"Sure,"

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><p>Today was a long day, I woke up early for soccer practice followed immediately by the swim team tryouts, then two lectures and finally tennis practice. I wanted junk food and a long nap. I began walking towards the dorms, a text book tucked under one arm and a duffle bag hanging off the other. I could hear my phone buzzing from inside my bag as I climbed up the stairs, I ignored it, it was probably one of my parents calling again. Tuffnut was standing half in the hall, half inside my room talking to Ruff.<p>

"Hey, we were waiting for you." Ruffnut said grabbing her purse off of her bed. "Burgers, my treat."

I sighed throwing my stuff onto the floor. "Thank the gods."

"No, thank Ruffnut." She said smirking at me as she closed the door and locked it.

I eyed Tuffnut. "Is-"

"Snotlout isn't coming." She assured me as we made our way out of the building. "It wouldn't be much of a break if he did."

"You didn't tell him?" I asked Tuff.

He shrugged and gave me a crooked smile. "My loyalties lie in my stomach."

"What's the occasion then?" I asked as we reached the intersection.

Ruffnut pressed the walk button. "The occasion is that I don't want you to die from starvation, with the amount of time you spend working out you should be eating double the amount of a normal person." She looked at me. "You're so damn thin."

"I have to be for track." I said defensively. "And you don't have to buy me food because of it."

She held up a flat palm. "It's fine, at the moment I happen to have more money than you, and given my art major that probably won't last." I laughed. "You can buy me plenty of burgers when you're a wealthy athlete."

We walked up to the food truck and Ruffnut started ordering. "Nice job yesterday by the way." Tuffnut said.

I rose an eyebrow. "It was just an arm wrestling match, the guy was obviously not very strong"

"No, I meant about his arm."

"What about it?"

"It's broken, you know."

I crossed my arms. "What? No it's not, you said so yourself. He's just not used to arm wrestling right?" Tuffnut snickered "Don't mess with me, you can't break someones arm that easily."

"It's true, he came back from the hospital last night." Tuffnut said. "Ask around, everyone knows about it."

"Right." I scoffed. "It's impossible for anyone to be strong enough to break an arm like that." Ruffnut walked back to us and handed each of us a burger. "Ruff tell him I didn't break that guys arm."

"What, the kid from yesterday?"

"Yeah"

"No, man, he came back in a sling."

My mouth hung open. "You're kidding."

"I swear." Ruff said taking a bite out of her burger. "You should've seen Snotlout, it cracked him up, he was telling everyone about it."

I lowered my face into my free hand. "Gods, he wasn't bugging the poor guy was he?"

"Naw." Tuffnut said through chomps. "I mean, he was making fun of him, but not to his face or anything."

I looked down at my burger, then back up at Ruffnut and Tuffnut. "You think I should apologize or something?"

"Hey, speak of the devil." Tuff said looking off into the distance. I turned around and saw him standing there across the street, his right arm in a sling waiting for the light to change. He noticed my gaze instantly and looked away, he turned to the boy beside him and they wandered off down the street.

"Shit, he's probably scared of me now." I took a bite from my burger. "I hate apologizing."

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><p><strong>Sorry there wasn't much Hiccup-Astrid interaction, there will be more next chapter! Thanks for reading :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! Thank you for all the faves and follows, this chapter has a lot more Astrid-Hiccup interaction so enjoy! The next chapter should also be working on building their relationship so stay tuned :)**

**No one specified how they wanted me to release the chapters, so I'm going to try and pace them. Updates will depend on a combination of how much of a buffer I have built up, and how long it's been since my last post. I will try to post multiple times a week!**

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><p>There was a knock at my door, I almost brushed it off as a dream in my sleep-induced stupor but when the second knock came I knew it was real. I stumbled out of bed and opened the door a crack, just enough for for my head to fit through.<p>

"Bad time I guess." My previously drooping eyes snapped right open and met with Astrid's big blue eyes. I would have fallen over if I didn't have the door to hold onto. "Don't worry, I'm not going to break your arm...again."

"Sprain..." I mumbled.

"What?"

"It's a shoulder sprain." I repeated more clearly. "You didn't break my arm."

Astrid smiled a bit. "Well that's...better." She brushed her bangs away from her eyes. "I'm sorry anyway. About the whole thing, I should've been easier on you, since it was your first time."

"You don't know if it was my first time." I defended, she cocked her eyebrow. "Fine, you can have that one."

She laughed, and it was brilliant. "Anyway, I didn't mean it, so you don't have to avoid me or anything." She turned to leave. "Oh, and don't listen to what Snotlout says, he's an idiot." I could only nod dumbly at her. "Sorry for waking you." She called out as she walked down the hall. I shut the door and sat on my bed, pleasantly shocked.

"What was it?" Fishlegs murmured groggily.

I pulled out my laptop. "It was nothing, go back to sleep." I said opening my laptop, my computer opened to residence listings. I stared at them for a moment, before deleting the tab. Maybe I was being too hopeful, her apology probably didn't mean much, but it gave me a little much-needed optimism, even if only for a little while, I would let myself succum to the silly dream. I didn't speak to Astrid for the next few days, I saw her, returning from practice, talking to people outside her room. I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't bring myself to walk up and start a conversation. When she said I didn't have to avoid her, what did that mean? Did that mean she wanted me to talk to her like everyone else, or go about like the whole thing had never happened? I just didn't know, and so I just minded my own business and acted like it had never happened. It felt safer that way.

"What are you guys doing?" I looked over my shoulder where Tuffnut, and what looked like his sister inspected our room from the hall.

"Uh," My eyes shifted around. "Setting up my console, since we just got the tv set up." They both stared through me, eyeing the game console as Fishlegs fiddled with the wires. I could tell what they wanted. "Do you want to play? When it's set up, I mean."

They barged into the room on that note and made themselves comfortable on my bed. "What games you got for it?" Tuffnut asked leering at the console.

I glanced over at my shelf. "A lot, I guess, I have Dragon Riders."

"Got the sequel? Dragon Defenders?" Tuffnuts sister asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "And the third one, Dragon Masters."

They both stared at me with wide eyes. "I didn't even know it was out yet." Tuffnut blurted out. "How'd you get it?"

"I paid extra, got it in the mail this morning." I said handing them the box. They both grabbed it at the same time and started inspecting the box, raving about it all the while.

"There you are, Ruff." My heart started pounding, and I turned to see Astrid standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. "We were supposed to go to the gym remember?"

"Oh, relax." Ruff said limply waving her hand in the air. "You can miss one measly workout, this kids got Dragon Masters for his console."

"Dragon what-now?"

"It's a RPG-style video game." I said, rather bravely. "You fly around on dragons and fight monsters and vikings." I tried to make it sound as enticing as possible, maybe even a little cool in hopes that I would spark her interest.

"It sounds like a colossal waste of time." Astrid huffed, glowering at Ruff. I'll admit it, that felt bad. It was dumb being affected so profoundly by one comment she made about a videogame, but nonetheless, it felt bad. "You coming or not Ruffnut?"

Ruffnut walked over to Astrid and pulled her into the room. "It'll be fun, you know what _fun_ is right?"

"Ha-ha, you're so funny." Astrid said rolling her eyes, Ruffnut gave her a stern expression. "Fine, I'll _try _and that's it." Astrid plonked down beside me on the floor, almost as if it were normal, like we were just a group of casual friends. It was a good feeling, I still felt nervous but less than usual. "So how does this work?"

I handed her a controler. "Here, the game will explain the controls once everything is set up." Her fingers brushed mine as she took it from me and I did my best not to blush. Fishlegs connected the last wire and the screen lit up. "There we go, you can make your character now." She handled the controller awkwardly at first, but caught on quickly.

"The graphics are really good." She commented. They were good, Astrid was obviously trying to model her avatar after herself and it worked. It looked just like her, adorned in armour and fur with a great big blue dragon and a two-handed axe. The theme seemed to stick and soon everyone had made their characters look like themselves. It was the most fun I had had in a long time, I never really had anyone to play my games with, but today, I had more than enough. Even Astrid, who had called the game a waste of time, was having a blast, and was surprisingly good at the game despite being a novice.

"How did you do that?" She shouted, shoving me in the arm.

I chuckled. "Haven't you been reading the game tips in the upper right corner?"

"What- no." Astrid tried swinging her axe at my character.

"You can't hit me, we're on the same team." I said grinning. "Friendly fire is off."

She shot a glare at me. "If we're on the same team why are you getting all the XP?"

"If you make the finishing blow you get more points."

Astrid jabbed me. "Well then stop making all the finishing blows."

"Times up guys." Tuffnut said staring at his phone. "It's our turn." Astrid and I handed the controllers to Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They both got right into it, arguing and button mashing. We moved from the floor onto Fishlegs' bed. The game had been distracting, and without it Astrid's presence right beside me started sink in and I started getting nervous again. She was so calm, as she sat there watching Ruffnut and Tuffnut play, her composed demeanor only made me more nervous.

"Still think it's a waste of time?" Maybe that was too rude, she might take offence to that.

Astrid smiled at me, oh gods she smiled at me. "Alright, I was wrong." she brushed her bangs away from her eyes. "It's pretty damn fun, thanks for letting us play."

I shrugged. "It's no problem."

"You play a lot of games?" Astrid asked. "Like, video games?"

"Yeah," I answered reluctantly.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of." She stretched out her arms over her head. "Someone said you did computers, you a programing major?"

"Computer engineering, yeah."

"So then it's not really a waste of time for you, since you might make games one day." Astrid looked over at me. "Is that what you're going to do when you get out of here?"

I hesitated for a second, what did I want to do? "I, I don't know. Maybe." I turned to look at her, she was still facing me. "You?"

"Sports, maybe the olympics." Astrid said. "It's what I'm best at."

"What's your major?"

"Political science, the plan is to go to law school. I can't be an athlete forever unfortunately." On the other side of the room, underneath my bed, Toothless poked his head out and looked around. My eyes nearly popped out of their skull. "Uh, is that-"

"Shh" I held out my hand frantically waving it. "Don't say anything."

Her eyes trailed towards Fishlegs. "Does-"

"He knows." I whispered. Luckily Tuffnut and Ruffnut we're completely preoccupied by their game and didn't notice us whispering. "Just, don't tell anyone."

"There are other dorms that allow pets you know."

I knew, and I it knew well. This was supposed to be temporary, but what could I tell her? That I had put off looking for a new place so I could be around her more? I didn't know how she would react, and I didn't want to know. Astrid might find it cute, even a little endearing, but it was much more likely that she would think I was a total creep and maybe I was, but I didn't want her to know it. So I lied. "I want to stick with Fishlegs, and he really likes it here."

"Yeah, it's always nice being around friends."

"So…?"

Astrid winked at me. "I didn't see a thing." I walked over to my bed and pushed Toothless back under. Astrid looked at her phone. "Ruff, if we don't go now, we'll barely even break a sweat before we have to leave."

Ruffnut groaned. "Fine, fine." She handed her controller off to Fishlegs and grabbed her bag to leave. "Later losers."

"Hey, thanks again Astrid," It seemed my hopes we're not as far fetched as I thought they were. Astrid smiled at me as she pulled her bag over her shoulder, she opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and narrowed her eyes at me.

"What's your name?" Well, I can dream can't I?

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><p><strong>I've noticed that Astrid is often portrayed as being unnecessarily mean and sort of irresponsible (drinking too much and being overly promiscuous) in a lot of modern AUs. I don't really see her that way, I view her as being very responsible and hardworking, not sure if it's just me. Admittedly she was mean in the first movie but I'm mainly basing her off of the second movie. Anyway I hope you like how I portray Astrid!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Woohoo! We've got quite a few faves/follows so thanks again! Please review! I would really like to hear your opinions guys, I try to reply to all comments. (There were a few I couldn't reply to because they were a guest or had disabled personal messages) A little bit of friendship building for Hiccup and Astrid this chapter, also introducing a new character who will likely be in and out occasionally. **

**Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading :)**

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><p>Just as quickly as it had blown up, the broken arm disaster had blown over as Fishlegs had predicted. The whole thing seemed a lot less regrettable and I started to appreciate the after affects it had caused. Astrid and I were acquaintances, we would say hi when we passed in the hall, every once in a while I would invite her over to play games. She usually declined because of her busy schedule, but the times she accepted made it worthwhile. I was still in a sling but it didn't really bother me, I was in a great mood. Acquaintance wasn't really a tittle to brag about, especially since Astrid had so many, but that title gave me a little courage.<p>

"Hey, you." I looked up from my computer, a tall brawny guy had opened the door to my room and stuck his head inside. "I'm looking for Astrid."

"I don't think she's here." I said standing from my desk. "She left a little over an hour ago for practice I think."

He snorted. "She's on like a million teams that doesn't really help."

"Sorry, I didn't hear anything else."

He growled in annoyance and threw a package at me. "Give her that, it's important."

I winced fumbling to catch it. "Hey, watch the arm."

"You deaf? I said give it to her."

"What, right now?"

"I said it was important." He shot back. "Tell her it's from Dagur."

I glared at him. "I don't know where she is, I can't-"

"Get to it freckle-face, I'll be back." He grunted before disappearing down the hall. The package was squishy and light, probably an article of clothing. I decided to just leave it in front of her door but as I bent over to place it on the ground Ruffnut showed up.

"What's that?"

I stood back up. "Someone wanted me to give this to Astrid, but I don't know where she is."

She pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. "She's down at the school's gym, but you can leave it with me."

I looked down at the package, I would be doing exactly what the guy wanted if I went and gave it to Astrid, but I wanted to do it anyway. An excuse to go see her had fallen into my lap and I wasn't going to pass it up. "No, I'll go give it to her, they said it was important." I replied.

Ruffnut shrugged her shoulders and went inside of her room. I left the building and wandered in what I thought was the right direction, I had seen the gym before but I had never needed to find it so it took me a while longer to locate it. As I walked in, stick thin with an arm in a sling, I got a lot of funny side glances and snickers from all the jocks and athletes as they exercised. I looked around for Astrid, a little lost in the unfamiliar foreign environment known as the gym, but when I saw her blonde braid swaying side to side I knew I had found her. "Astrid."

She nearly did a double take when she saw me. "Hiccup." She panted as she ran, nearly sprinting on her treadmill. "You need something?"

"Don't you think you're going a bit fast?"

Astrid smiled at me. "No pain no gain, right?"

"Not really a phrase I look to." I said awkwardly before holding up the package for her to see. "I was asked to give this to you, they said it was important."

"Who?"

"He said his name was Dagur."

She rolled her eyes at the sound of his name and turned the treadmill off. "Don't take anything from that ass." She gasped for air.

"Who is he?"

"He's some guy from the football team." Astrid said through gasps. "They keep harassing me to join, I just ignore them." She wiped sweat away from her forehead.

"Should I give it back to him?"

"No, give it to me." She took the package and ripped the top off revealing a football jersey. She held it up over her chest. "Check it out, I'm number fifteen."

I chuckled. "Well since you have a jersey I guess it's official."

Astrid laughed and smacked me on the arm. "Yeah right." She dumped the jersey back into it's packaging and tossed it into a trash bin behind her. "Did he say anything else?"

"Well he called me a freckle-face, and said he would be back."

"Be back?" She repeated sounding a little annoyed. "Be back for you or be back for me?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, we live on the same floor, probably both."

Astrid groaned. "He's such a pain in the ass."

I swallowed hard and felt my stomach clench up. "How about," I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. "How about we go do something, maybe we can miss him."

She cocked her head while leaning on the treadmill's handle bar. "Did you have anything particular in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking mini golf."

Astrid snickered at me as she picked up her bag. "Mini golf?"

"It's probably the only sport I can beat you at." I said with a klutzy grin.

"Mini golf is not a sport." She said rolling her eyes and starting to walk towards the change rooms, before entering she looked back at me. "But challenge accepted."

I had never been so happy to play mini golf in my life, and the more time I spent with Astrid the more I liked her. Every little detail I learned about her only made her seem more beautiful to me. Astrid probably won the first round despite only using one arm to compensate, but after several holes we had completely forgotten to keep track of the score, we were having too much fun to pay attention to who was winning.

"Zoology?" She said taking her ice cream cone from me. "Is that what you're interested in?"

I licked my vanilla cone while thinking. "I guess so, I am enjoying it, even if it's just a minor." I sighed. "It's not like I don't enjoy programming, I do."

"Then what's the problem?" Astrid asked biting off some of her cone.

"I know if I stick to programing my dad will give me a job, he's so preoccupied with the idea that I'll succeed him he doesn't even notice how much it bothers me." I leaned up against a trash can. "If I take a job in the family business it'll only mislead him."

"You should talk to him."

"Trust me, I've tried." I growled. "He's a terrible listener."

Astrid brushed her bangs away from her face. "What about your mom? Maybe she could help you talk to him, or is she trying to get you to inherit the business too?"

"No, she left when I was a kid. I barely remember her."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

I shook my head and took another lick from my ice cream. "It's not like that, she's an ecologist. So she travels all around the world for her work, I get a postcard every now and then. Last I heard she was in Brazil."

"I don't think that makes it much easier." Astrid said giving me a shoulder nudge, I nudged her back and we both smiled at one another. "What do you say we stop being so gloomy and finish our game? Right now you're not Hiccup the confused first-year your Hiccup the self-proclaimed putt-putt master defending his title, witch by the way, you're doing a poor job of."

"I was winning that last game and you know it." I scoffed. "And when did I say I was a putt-putt master?"

Astrid smirked and wagged a finger at me. "Any time you say you can beat me at a game you're basically claiming you're a master."

I snickered. "So, does chess count?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Is that another challenge I smell?"

* * *

><p>"Where were you?"<p>

I stuffed my keys into my gym bag and dropped it beside my bed. "Avoiding Dagur, he came by to give me a jersey, can you believe that prick?"

"So that's who that was from."

"You knew?" I asked whipping my head around to look at Ruff.

"No, Hiccup came by to drop off a package." She said eyes glued to her phone. "He didn't tell me who it was from."

I flopped on my bed and stared at the ceiling. "Well, it was from Dagur."

"So what did you do for four hours?" Ruffnut asked glancing up from her phone.

"Was it that long?" I said looking at my watch. "Shit, time flies." Ruff rose an eyebrow. "I was out at the mini golf place, then the book store."

She snickered. "What, did you play five games?"

"Three, actually." I replied propping myself onto an elbow. "I was playing chess in the bookstore for a while too."

Ruffnut lowered her phone. and eyed me. "With who?"

"Hiccup."

"The nerd down the hall?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Yes, the nerd down the hall."

"Wow."

I sat up and frowned. "Wow what?"

She shrugged. "Nothing, I just didn't know you went for that."

"Went for what?"

"Awkward guys, lanky guys, nerdy guys, pretty much any adjective that describes Hiccup." Ruffnut said. "You could do way better than that."

"We're friends." I said sternly. "And don't call him a 'that', it's rude."

Ruffnut held up her palms defensively. "Didn't mean to insult your boyfriend."

I shot her an unamused expression from across the room. "He doesn't like me like that, don't be a dick."

"He's totally crushing on you, it's obvious."

"Right."

She threw a pillow at my head. "I'm serious, just because he doesn't throw himself at you like Snotlout does, doesn't mean it's not true." I shut my mouth and looked at her, signalling her to continue. "I've caught him staring at you like ten times and he's only been in the building for a little over two weeks. You should've seen his face when I suggested you armwrestle with him, priceless."

"Oh come on." I said shaking my head. "He didn't even know me then."

"I saw him carrying all his stuff in with his fat nerd friend from our window, he was gawking at you while you were running track, and he would get all nervous and shifty when we passed in the hall." Ruffnut laughed a little. "Why do you think I volunteered you to armwrestle?"

"You did that to purposely distress him?" I exclaimed glaring at Ruff. "I gave him a shoulder sprain, he's still in a sling."

"I know, it turned out better than I thought." She said continuing to text.

* * *

><p>"You like her, don't you?"<p>

I dropped my controller and snapped my neck around to look at Fishlegs. "Huh?"

"I know it's none of my business." He said pausing the game. "It's just way you talk about her, and the way she's always distracting you...I didn't want to say anything before, but you know, it's starting to sound serious."

"It's nothing." I said trying to sound nonchalant. "I mean, it hasn't even been three weeks since we met."

Fishlegs put his controller down. "That's why I'm worried, I get that you had a lot of fun tonight but we both know what your chances are." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And even if she does like you, you barely know her. I've had bad experiences with popular kids, they seem cool at first, but they never stick around long for guys like us."

"I get it."

"I just don't want you to put all your eggs in one basket."

I nodded. "I completely get it, Fish, but I gotta try. I've never felt like this for anyone before."

"I can't say I know what you're feeling." Fishlegs said putting a hand on my shoulder. "But I'm here for you man."

I smiled. "Thanks."


	5. Chapter 5

**I stumbled across this picture the other day, link posted on my profile since links don't work here. I really like it, it's definitely how I imagine modern Astrid and Hiccup. Not really a fan of punk Astrid, sporty seems to fit her a lot better. Ironically it looks like Hiccup's arm is broken in the drawing. The place where I found it said the picture is based on a modern httyd fanfic, so there seems to be an injured arm-theme going on.**

**Note; the link doesn't send you where I originally found it, unfortunately when I first tried to put the link here it messed it up and I didn't know how to find it again, I did find the picture again so huzzah!**

* * *

><p>It was a relief to finally have both my arms back, video games were a lot easier to play once my right arm could hold the controller properly and writing notes, and pretty much everything else. Dawn of the Dragon Racers, the new tv show loosely based on the Dragon Riders videogame had come out the weekend preceding the removal of my sling. I downloaded it on netflix on the day it came out, but I waited for everyone else to have time to watch it.<p>

"No can do man, we're watching Dawn of the Dragon Racers." Tuffnut said taking a swig from his beer bottle.

Snotlout jerked his head back with a confused, almost repulsed expression. "Dragon Racers? It looks like nerd one and nerd two have been rubbing their nerd off on you." He shook his head. "Half the girl's volleyball team is going to this movie night dude, have you even seen their volley balls" He said putting quotations around the word 'volley balls'.

"Subtle." I choked out, despite my better judgement.

Snotlout glowered at me before turning back to Tuffnut. "C'mon, don't bail on me."

"Have you seen the teaser trailer for this?" Tuff said raising his eyebrows dramatically. "I've waited long enough, the volleyball team isn't going anywhere."

"Are you seriously trying to get me to watch Dawn of the Dorks?" Snotlout grunted crossing his arms. "Because-" Astrid and Ruffnut walked out of their room, carrying a bowl of popcorn and two pillows. They walked past us while casually chatting and headed straight into my room to join Fishlegs. Snotlout's head seemed to turn on an axis following Astrid, once she had entered the room he blinked back into reality. "I guess I could come."

I rolled my eyes and walked back into my room. "Well hurry up, we're starting soon." It was cramped with the six of us all crammed into our little room. Astrid and Ruffnut had brought pillows so they could sit on the floor, and naturally Snotlout immediately squashed in beside Astrid, leaving me, Fishlegs and Tuffnut on the bed above them. The seating arrangement wasn't exactly ideal. I sat directly behind Snotlout and from my position I could see every lecherous ogle and every failed attempt of the yawn-and-stretch Snotlout pulled on Astrid. It was more than a little distracting.

"I'll be sure to download the second episode as soon as it comes out." I said as everyone gathered up their belongings. "So, same time next week."

Tuffnut gave Snotlout a jab. "You can't tell me that wasn't awesome."

"It was okay." Snotlout said looking off to the side. "Anyway, see you guys next week." Tuffnut and Snotlout both went back inside their room.

Fishlegs looked at his watch. "It's only six, I think I'm going to squeeze in some time at the library, see you later Hiccup."

"Wait up," Ruffnut called out. "I've got a test coming up, I'll go with you." She looked back to Astrid. "You don't mind taking the stuff back to our room do you?"

Astrid shook her head. "No, I don't mind." There was a pause, we both stood in the doorway without moving or saying anything, but it wasn't awkward just kind of calm. "I could barely concentrate with all of them stuffed into one room."

"Yeah, me neither." It's a strange feeling to understand what someone's thinking and know that they understand you. We both smiled and walked straight back into my room to watch the episode again.

* * *

><p>Snotlout continued to tag along to our weekly viewing of Dawn of the Dragon Racers, it was a little weird and kind of surreal but he really seemed to enjoy it, and not because of Astrid. He would occasionally visit with Tuffnut and play games and it was actually nice, without really knowing it I had created a little group of unlikely friends over a video game and a tv show. Snotlout was still obnoxious, no doubt about that, but by the time we had watched the fifth episode he had really settled in. I was almost glad he had joined in, <em>almost. <em>I had nearly forgotten about the elephant in the room, Snotlout's uncomfortably obvious hankering for Astrid. For a few days I thought Snotlout's affections had been diverted to dragon-related entertainment, maybe so, but it was only temporarily diverted. I should have realized that there is only so long you can distract a horny, impulsive, alpha-male from his primary focus in life. Coitus.

"You're pals with Astrid right?"

For a second I wasn't sure who Snotlout was talking to, it was late, and Tuffnut and Snotlout had taken over our room to play Dragon Masters, neither one had said much to me that night as I quietly did my homework. Fishlegs shot me a worried expression from the other side of the room. "What?"

Snotlout paused the game and turned to look back at me. "I know you guys chill a lot, does she tell you, you know, girl stuff?"

"Huh?"

"Look, I know you guys can all tell that I like Astrid." He began acting rather uncharacteristically sincere. I could tell where this was going, and I didn't like it. "You just seem to get along with her so well, do you think you could give me advice? Maybe tell me what sorts of things she likes?"

What had happened to the world? I was not the type of guy that other guys went to for advice, and Snotlout was definitely not the type to ask for help. There was no way in hell I would tell him that I liked her, knowing Snotlout, he would probably tell Astrid in the most embarrassing and awful way he could conjure up and I would never live to see the end of his torment. No, I was certain I couldn't tell him. However helping him hit on Astrid wasn't exactly an ideal option either. "Gee, I don't know Snotlout. Isn't that an invasion of her privacy?"

"Don't worry, man." He said enthusiastically. "I won't tell her you said anything."

My face retained it's blank stare. "That makes me feel much better Snotlout, thanks." I said, words dripping with sarcasm.

He frowned. "Hey, abandoning a friend in need is also morally unethical."

"There were so many things wrong with that sentence I don't even know where to begin."

"How about the redundancy of saying 'morally unethical'" Fishlegs suggested, quickly turning to avoid Snotlout's inevitable glare.

"Hiccup, if there was anyone else I could go to, I would be asking them." Snotlout pleaded. "I need your help, just this once."

"Why don't you just ask Ruffnut?"

He huffed, "I can't ask her."

I cocked my head like a frustrated parent. "Why not?"

"Because she's-" He winced. "A girl."

"How observant."

Snotlout scowled. "You laugh now, but they're all sisters man."

"No, he's totally right dude." Tuffnut said. "Bros over hoes" Snotlout and Tuffnut both nodded and grinned to one another in agreement.

I scoffed "I thought this was about trying to get Astrid to like you."

"It is."

"Then here's a tip; don't say shit like that." I responded sarcastically.

Snotlout shuffled a little closer to me. "Okay, what else?"

"Whoa-" I held up my hands. "That-, I wasn't giving you advice." I tried to rephrase. "I'm not giving you advice about this, Snotlout. You need to do this on your own."

He winked at me mischievously. "Riiight, you're not giving me advice."

There is a lesson to be learned from today, I would be better off minding my own business and keeping my mouth shut. Oh, and jocks don't always mix well with sarcasm, which is too bad since about fifty percent of what comes out of my face is sarcasm. Hint; this is where the keeping my mouth shut lesson comes in.

* * *

><p><strong>It was brought to my attention that when I shift scenes it's confusing as to what character's POV we're in, trying to make it easier to tell but I don't want to just put "Hiccup's POV" at the beginning of scenes since it looks unprofessional. If anyone has any suggestions on how to help with this issue please post a review or send me a pm, thanks!<strong>

**Sorry for the short chapter today, the next chapter will be longer :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 is up! Thank you for all the suggestions, I'm just going to make it so every time you see a dividing line it indicates a POV change unless otherwise stated. This only applies to future chapters, there are a few before this one that do not follow this guideline. So consider this my response to all the comments regarding the POV transitions.**

**As promised this is a longer chapter, and there's another new character introduced, I hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

><p>It felt natural around Astrid, a lot of my nerves had gone away. The only thing that got me flustered was my looming unsavoury thoughts, I didn't want to just be another guy who was crushing on her, because the gods know there was no shortage of them. I certainly didn't want to be clustered into the same category as Snotlout, because I wasn't like Snotlout, not in the slightest. Astrid and I were friends, good friends, and a part of me picked apart her actions wondering if she really only saw me as a friend. Snotlout was only an additional complication that I didn't need. It didn't matter what I said to him, in his mind I was his own personal Astrid coach. It wouldn't have been such a problem if not for Astrid, every little embarrassing secret seemed so much worse with the prospect that she might hear about it. The last thing I wanted was for Astrid to believe that I was creepily helping Snotlout pick her up.<p>

I had been invited to a big Halloween party in the area, the anxiety and excitement of my first party was nothing in comparison to all my other worries. There was no doubt in my mind that Snotlout was expecting me to help him woo Astrid tonight, and Astrid had flatout invited me to go with her to ward-off other guys. Fishlegs had agreed to go on the condition that I stick to his side for moral support, and the twins had made it abundantly clear that their goal during the party was to get me shit-faced drunk. And if that wasn't enough word around the grapevine was that Dagur was coming to the event, and he was not someone I wanted to bump into. Who knew having a social life was so much work. Our costumes were less than impressive, the twins had both worn shirts with the word 'costume' crudely written across them, I'm not sure if they were trying to be clever or if they were just being plain lazy, I would probably lean towards the latter. Fishlegs and I wore old homemade costumes of obscure comic book characters that I'm sure nobody would recognize, and Snotlout, declaring that Halloween costumes were lame decided to go as a werewolf. Since it wasn't a full moon on that particular night, that meant he was just a normal guy with a joke to tell once in a while. Astrid had the only passable costume, a little old school, but it was a classic. She was a zombie, with the fake blood, ripped clothes and everything. The six of us all crammed into Snotlout's old minivan and drove off to the party together.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked me. I nodded, nervously drumming my fingers on my leg. She grabbed my hand to stop me. "You need to relax, lets go mingle a little."

Fishlegs jolted off of the wall we were leaning against, as we watched a group of frat boys play beer pong. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Astrid let go of my hand and put her hands on her hips. "Fishlegs, we can't stay here all night, lets go dance."

I shook my head. "I can't dance."

"Everyone can dance." She said. "You can't dance well, that's the difference."

"Gee thanks."

"I was joking." My expression didn't waver. Astrid crossed her arms. "Well, we're not staying here, we're going to either mingle or dance, it's your choice."

"Mingle." "Dance." Fishlegs and I both turned to look at each other.

"Are you kidding?" He said. "You want to actually talk to these people? Dancing can be an individual activity, we should stay away from the jocks, especially the drunk jocks."

"You already have friends who are jocks, what's the big deal? Besides not everyone here is athletic there are plenty of other people to talk to."

He continued shaking his head defiantly. "Nope, not doing it."

"At least it's better than grinding up against strangers in a sweaty, overcrowded room."

"Alright, alright," Astrid said waving her hands in the air. "This isn't the fifth grade, we're not bounded by the buddy-system. Fishlegs can go dance and Hiccup can go mingle."

"I don't want to be alone in this place." Fishlegs cried out.

Astrid sighed. "Relax Fishlegs, I'll go with you."

"So I have to go alone?" I asked frantically as they started walking off.

Astrid looked over her shoulder. "Hiccup, just make some new friends and then you won't be alone, that's the whole point of mingling. I can't deal with two babies at once." Then she wandered off with Fishlegs and disappeared into the crowd. I cursed under my breath.

"Ditched by your friends, huh?" I jumped at the voice behind me, and turned to see a pretty girl with dark hair wearing a set of cat ears. "Hiccup, right?"

"How'd you know?"

She smiled at me. "I overheard your friends, I'm Heather by the way." She extended out a hand.

I reluctantly shook it. "Hi."

"You don't seem like the party-goer type." Heather looked around. "I don't usually come to events like this either. Why did you come out?"

"Friends, you?"

"I'm trying to get inspiration, for a piece I'm writing. literature major."

I smiled awkwardly. "Ah, I'm a computer engineering major."

* * *

><p>"He's actually better than I thought." Ruffnut commented as she watched Fishlegs attempt the robot with Tuffnut and Snotlout.<p>

I laughed and gave her a shove in the arm. "That's only because you had exceptionally low expectations for him, that's pretty much the only dance he can do properly, just so you know."

"I think it's about time we started flirting with some guys," Ruffnut started looking around the room. "If we wait any longer the volleyball team will snatch up all the hot guys...how about that guy?"

I wrinkled my nose. "Really? That guy?"

"Then how about...him." Ruffnut pointed to a tall guy with jet black hair and a defined jaw line. He had on a loose white shirt and a pair of dirty jeans.

"He's cute, go for it."

Ruffnut snorted at me. "I meant you should go talk to him."

"I don't know, I'm pretty busy with school and practise, my workload is only going to increase."

Ruff stared at me blankly. "Wow, I wish you could hear how lame that sounded."

"Shut up." I said elbowing her

"I'm only trying to help you out." She said elbowing me back. "Yikes, with an attitude like that I know why you've only ever dated two guys."

"Because I'm only eighteen, that's why." I replied to her in an irritated tone. "What happened to the days when having a long record of ex-boyfriends was a bad thing."

"Astrid."

"What?"

"The hot guy is totally checking you out." I turned my head. "Don't look." Ruffnut exclaimed and I quickly turned back. "I think I've seen him somewhere before…" She mumbled.

"What's he doing?" I asked.

"Soccer team? No, not the soccer team."

"Ruffnut." I hissed. "What is he doing?"

She clapped her hands together dramatically. "Basketball, he's on the basketball team."

"Oh fuck this." I cursed throwing a glance over my shoulder at him, he was staring directly at me. I quickly turned back. "Oh shit, he definitely saw me look."

Ruffnut lowered her face into her hand and shook her head. "I told you not to look."

"Yes, I know." I shot back. "That ship has sailed already, what do I do now?"

"Uh...turn around?"

"What?" I crossed my arms. "I thought you said-"

"Hey." I turned slowly around and as I anticipated from Ruffnut's sultry expression the basketball guy stood tall right behind me with a cool expression on his face. "You caught me looking at you, so I figure I had nothing to lose. I get it if you think I'm creepy now."

"No," I shook my head. "I don't think you're creepy."

He sighed. "That's a relief, because I think you're really cute."

"You think I'm cute?" I said smirking at him.

He nodded. "Yeah, you're-"

"Astrid."

"Nice costume, Astrid." He smiled at me seductively. "I think I've heard of you, you're the sports jack of all trades girl."

"That's me."

"I'm just basketball." He admitted holding up his hands. "I would say it's because I want to devote all my energy into basketball, but honestly, I just suck at all other sports. I probably only made it into basketball because of my height."

I laughed and slapped him on the arm. "I doubt that, you're all muscle and no fat. You don't get that from just being tall."

"Oh, Astrid, are you trying to seduce me?" He joked.

I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. "As if, boys are gross."

He laughed loudly. "Hey, do you and your friend want to see something cool? I learned how to do a backflip a few days ago, it is not an easy task, especially when you're my height." He eyed me devilishly. "I bet you, that you can't do one in ten tries."

"Oh your on." I replied immediately. "Let's go onto the front lawn, there's more space there."

As we walked to the front door Ruffnut kept nudging and winking at me while trying to stifle a snicker. Then I saw something that took be a little aback. I didn't want it to be a big deal, I had only known Hiccup for a month and it didn't bother me that he had an innocent crush on me. He handled it a lot better than most guys who had crushes on me, he was much more subtle and mature, he kept it to himself. It wouldn't be long until he moved on to someone else, I know how guys are, the pretty athletic girl seems really cool at first but sooner or later they find someone they actually have things in common with. I've seen it a dozen times, and of all the guys, Hiccup had the least in common with me. Sure we liked the dragon show and the dragon game, and we liked putt-putt and chess, but none of those were serious hobbies. Hiccup loves a lot of things that I find less than interesting, like his devoted interest in model planes or his own personal religion, the Night-Fury comics. Hiccup didn't like sports, or pretty much anything related to physical activity and he was just as disinterested in law as I was disinterested in computer engineering. I would occasionally try to imagine what sort of girl would suit him best, and I'll grant, when I saw that pretty raven-haired girl chatting with him at first I did think she suited him. As the end of the evening drew near however, the whole ordeal had left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

* * *

><p>By the time I had made it back to the dance floor Snotlout and Tuffnut had passed out on the couch and Fishlegs had turned to sleepily watching Lilo and Stitch while eating french toaster sticks. I slumped beside him on the sofa. "How was dancing?"<p>

"Good, how was mingling?"

I thought for a second. "Good, better than I thought."

There was quiet moment as Fishlegs slowly chewed and swallowed one of his toaster sticks. "We're never coming to another party again."

"Oh, definitely not."

He chuckled a little before yawning. "That's good to hear. We should probably be getting home soon, we have class tomorrow."

I nodded and looked back at Ruffnut and Snotlout, who were sleeping on the other couch. "How are we going to get them home? Should we wake them up?"

"I guess we should." Fishlegs stood from his seat on the couch and set his plate on the coffee table. "We need his keys, help me find them." He walked over to Snotlout and started gently shaking him. "Hey, wake up, we need your keys, we're going home." He grunted and turned over onto his side, Fish sighed and began rifling through Snotlout's pockets and fished the keys out of his jacket. "Have you been drinking?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Good," He said tossing the keys to me. "Let's see if we can get them into the car."

"Wait," I said. "Where's Astrid? We've got to find her before we leave."

Fishlegs continued shaking Snotlout. "Astrid? I think I saw her leave with some guy about an hour ago."

"Some guy?" I bit my lower lip. "What guy? Had she been drinking?"

Fishlegs shrugged. "I don't know, she didn't look drunk to me."

I wasn't sure why I had asked if she had been drinking. I'd like to believe it was because I was concerned that whoever she had left with was taking advantage of her intoxicated state and that Astrid didn't know what she was doing. Though trying to imagine Astrid being taken advantage of was a difficult task, and a part of me thought I had asked because I hoped she was drunk and that she had left with him only on an impulse during the craziness of the party. "Maybe we should text her, just to be sure she doesn't need a ride back."

"Nah, she told me we could leave whenever."

"When did she say that?" I asked pulling my phone out.

"When we were dancing."

I turned my phone on. "I should anyway, so we know if she's okay." When my phone started up I noticed a single text in my inbox, I opened it, it was from Astrid twenty minutes ago. In the little helvetica font on my screen it said; _go home without me_.

* * *

><p><strong>People seem to be quite upset by Astrid's interactions with the basketball guy, so just for anyone who is concerned; Astrid did not have sex with him, and he will likely only ever return once or twice, if ever again.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**We got off on a good start and I've been updating quite speedily. I tend to have a burst of inspiration when I first start a story, and for this story that burst has lasted particularly long. I'm maintaining my 2-3 chapter buffer quite well at the moment and I want to keep it that way so you will likely see chapters coming out a little slower as my writing takes a little more time.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>"I don't think I've ever seen anyone climb a tree that fast." Astrid hyped moving her arms around dramatically. "You guys should've seen it, this guy is seriously athletic, I'm surprised I've never heard anyone talk about him around campus."<p>

Ruffnut nodded. "He was the definition of tall, dark and handsome."

"He was really tall." Astrid confirmed while nodding.

I tired to look indifferent, "How tall is he?"

"I think he said he was 6'5."

I felt deflated. I was pretty tall myself, it was the one thing that I had over a lot of the other guys around Astrid, but my 6'1 meant nothing compared to his 6'5. The mystery basketball player had everything going for him, and overnight he had swooped in and impressed Astrid. Did she like him like that? I couldn't do a backflip or climb trees with ease or walk around on my hands or even just play basketball. I couldn't compare, I wasn't even close.

"Hiccup, we weren't the only ones who met somebody right?" Astrid asked smiling at me. "I saw you talking to that girl, she was cute."

"Uh, sure."

"No way," Snotlout smacked me on the back. "Nice job, did you get any action?"

I rubbed my back tenderly. "No, I did not get any action, it's not like that with her."

"Don't be such a nice guy," Tuffnut said jokingly. "You should've got her number at the very least."

"She gave me her number."

"No shit?" Tuffnut asked staring at me grinning. "The nerd has moves."

Snotlout gave me another hard smack on the back. "My man!"

"Are you going to ask her out?" Astrid asked smiling enthusiastically at me. "We could give you some pointers, or clothes."

I looked down at myself. "What's wrong with my clothes?" I shook my head before she could reply. "Wait, it doesn't matter, I'm not asking her out alright? So just lay off already."

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Hiccup."

"I'm not-" I let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, I've got a lot of homework to do, so if you guys could just-" They all looked at one another before slowly filing out of the room reluctantly, leaving me and Fishlegs alone in the room. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You should just tell her."

I turned around and glared at him. "Are you kidding? She practically has a greek god for a boyfriend, she won't give me the time of day."

"They're not dating." Fishlegs pointed out. "But that might not last long unless you do something about it."

"Oh please." I flopped belly first onto my bed. "As if I could do anything about it."

Fishlegs shrugged. "Just learn how to do a backflip."

"You and I both know that is never going to happen in a million years." I growled into my pillow. "Am I just doomed to always get second place because I can't do a handstand? Is that really what's most important to girls?"

"Nah, Ruffnut said he was good-looking too." Fish said.

"Thanks."

"You know I didn't mean it that way." He walked over to my bed looked down at me. "I'm not going to act like I'm any better, but you can't sit around too scared to make a move, and then get angry when she finds someone else."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I wish I had a time machine so I could just go frackin dancing like you wanted to in the first place."

* * *

><p>I sat at the cable pulldown machine and re-tied my shoelaces. "We should leave Hiccup alone about the whole thing about that girl he was with, we obviously misread him."<p>

Ruffnut put down her weights and shot me an exhausted look. "There is no way we misread anything, did you see how he reacted to us asking about her?" She wiped sweat away from her forehead. "Why would he get so emotional if he didn't like her?"

I shrugged. "Maybe because we're harassing him about it."

"Fine, we can leave it alone." Ruffnut grabbed her water bottle and took a swig from it. "But I still stand by that he has it bad for her." She wiggled her eyebrows at me. "You going to call that guy back?"

"I don't know, he was cute and all, it's just,"

"It's just what? He's too perfect for you?"

I sighed. "You know, if you think he's so great, why don't you call him?"

"First of all, he gave you his number, not me. Secondly, I prefer bulky men, and most importantly, I'm not the one in a rut." Ruffnut said setting her bottle back onto the floor.

"I am not in a rut."

"Uh-huh," Ruffnut cocked her head. "Tell me the truth, do you just enjoy being the unattainable girl, who gets flirted with all the time but always turns them down?"

"That is not what this is about." I defend shaking my head. "I'm just not into the dating thing, I'm still young, why do I have to seek out guys? I just want it to be, spontaneous."

"What and the basketball guy wasn't spontaneous?" Ruff said. "By the way did he ever tell us his name?"

"That's a completely different kind of spontaneous okay? It's not the same thing." I brushed my bangs away from my face. "I just want to get to know someone without the pressure of dating, you know."

Ruffnut raised an eyebrow. "So let me get this straight...you want to not date them and then date them?"

I sighed and turned away from Ruffnut in frustration. "You're twisting my words around that's-"

"You should have gone off with him, I would have been fine on my own." She said interrupting me. "The last thing I want to be is the third wheel."

"You were not the third wheel."

Ruff scoffed. "Maybe not to you, but to him I was just a cock-block."

"It's not like I was going to have sex with him anyway." I said scowling. "We just met, I'm not a one-night-stand person, you should know that."

"I know, I know," Ruffnut said flopping a hand around at me. "That doesn't mean you can't call him back." I glanced off to the side and crunched up my mouth. "Oh come on."

"I'll think about it, it's just-Hiccup?" From through the gym's large front window I could see Hiccup and the raven-haired girl standing across the street chatting with one another. "He's with that girl again."

Ruffnut stood and looked out the window. "Where?"

"There, across the street." I said pointing.

Ruff walked over to the window and looked out at them. "She's pretty."

"I know, I've seen her before." I said walking over to join her. "Maybe you're right, I mean it hasn't even been one day and they're already seeing each other."

"Of course I'm right." Ruffnut proclaimed proudly. "I'm always right."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." I looked out at Hiccup and the girl. "I should go over there and meet her, if I'm friendly and calm maybe he won't feel so embarrassed about it."

"You think he's embarrassed about it?"

I shrugged. "That's my best guess, she's his first semi-girlfriend, they're both probably still in that awkward middle school phase."

Ruffnut snickered. "People our age seriously still go through that?"

"Don't make fun of him." I said jabbing Ruff in the side. "People making jokes like that are probably the reason he's so embarrassed about it."

"How do you know showing up unannounced won't embarrass him more?"

"I don't." I pulled my jacket out of my bag. "But he can't hide from his friends forever, it's better if everyone finds out now, there will be less gloating, and next time it won't seem so scary."

"What makes you so sure he won't stick with this one? Nerds nest man." Ruffnut said.

I stuffed my phone in my pocket. "Nobody sticks with their very first girlfriend, take my bag back when you leave."

"What?" Ruffnut yelled after me as I left the building. "How long are you going to be?"

* * *

><p>The creaking sound was very unsettling, anytime someone even tapped on the tv the stand it would wobble around and make irritating sounds. Snotlout and Tuffnut were not as gentle with it as they should have been, but it didn't seem to bother them. I don't know if it was actually worse today or if my stress had heightened the wobbling and creaking.<p>

"I can't believe Astrid's going for a basketball guy." Snotlout grumped. "He wasn't even that good-looking." _Squeak_

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "You never saw him." _Squeak_

"I have a pretty good imagination." _Squeak _Snotlout sighed. "You think they did it?" _Squeak_

"Oh totally." _Squeak_

I just wanted to play some games and keep my mind off of he who must not be mentioned, but the stupid tv stand had it out for me, and Snotlout and Tuffnut wouldn't stop talking about the one thing I didn't want to hear about. Sex hadn't even crossed my mind, and I wished that they hadn't planted the thought in me. I didn't want to think about Astrid doing it was someone else, but now the question seemed to echo in my mind. Did they do it?

"They told us what they did, Ruffnut was with her the whole time." Fishlegs interjected.

Tuffnut scoffed. "As if she'd tell us about it." _Squeak_

"Maybe they had a threesome." _Squeak _Snotlout laughed at the thought. _Squeak_

"Gross dude." Tuffnut said wincing. "I did not need that image in my head." _Squeak_

"Do you think it was just a one time thing?" _Squeak _"Or do you think they're going to _be_ a thing?" _Squeak_

Tuffnut shrugged. _Squeak _"They'll probably be a thing." _Squeak _"She seemed pretty impressed by him." _Squeak_

"That's it." I cried out, springing up from the floor. "I'm getting a new stand." I stormed out of the room before anyone could say a word. Shopping, shopping, think about shopping. I hated that basketball guy, I hated him even though I had never met him, I hated him because he could do a backflip, I hated him because he was taller than me, I hated him because he seemed like a nice guy, and more than anything I hated him because he was turning me into a petty, bitter, loser. I wanted so badly to believe that Astrid was better than that, that she wouldn't have slept with him so easily, but I was full of uncertainty and it only made me hate him more. I stomped along the side-walk heading towards the nearest bus stop when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hiccup, hey."

I turned around trying to hold back my anger. "Oh, Heather."

She smiled at me bashfully clutching a notebook to her chest. "You seem like you're in a bad mood? What's wrong? Parent's birthday?"

"Yeah actually...my dad's is coming up on November 13th, how'd you know?"

Heather shrugged. "My moms birthday always stresses me out, we don't really get along most of the time."

I sighed. "I don't really celebrate my dad's birthday."

"That bad huh?"

I forced a laugh. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Why are you on such bad terms?" She asked. "Has it always been like this?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "He's always been an awful listener, so yeah. I think his brain is programed to filter out anything I say that he doesn't want to hear."

"Did he push you into programming?"

"Not exactly." I could hear the sound of light footsteps steadily approaching me from behind, and I turned around to see Astrid jogging towards me.

"Hey Hiccup." She said taking her final steps toward us. "This must be your friend from the party, I'm Astrid, nice to meet you."

"Heather."

Astrid seemed overly enthusiastic, but I tried not to look at her. "I saw you guys from the gym, I thought I'd run over and greet you guys. So, Heather, what major are you?"

"Literature, you?"

"I'm political science." Astrid said smiling at Heather. "Do you live on campus?"

Heather smiled back. "No, I live with my parents. Are you Hiccup's-?"

"No!" Astrid answered a little too quickly and a little too forcefully. "No, we're just friends."

I began slowly shuffling away. "Well, I really ought to be going now."

"Well, it was nice meeting you Astrid," Heather said turning to leave. "Bye, Hiccup."

I continued walking but Astrid followed after me. "I was going to invite her to grab a bite." She sighed. "You should've talked to her more, she totally likes you, you know."

The scowl across my face deepened. "I'm not really interested."

"Why not? She's so nice and pretty."

"Is that what you think is most important to me?" I asked without looking back.

Astrid put a hand on my shoulder to stop me, and walked into front of me. "Of course not, you know that." She looked into my eyes and I turned away fighting back a blush. I felt stupid, despite everything, I was still blushing like an idiot for her. "I'll tell the guys to stop bugging you about her, they don't mean any harm, that's just how they encourage each other."

"I know." I sighed. "I'm sorry for being so moody."

A look of relief washed over Astrid and she pushed her hands into her pockets. "Don't worry about it, I know better than anyone how they can get under your skin." She moved out of my way. "Where are you going?"

We continued walking. "Ikea, I need to replace the tv stand."

"Oh, the wobbly one?" She laughed at the thought. "Did it break?"

I shook my head. "I want to replace it before that happens."

"Can I tag along?" Astrid asked. "I can help you pick the colour." It was incredible how profoundly Astrid could affect me in both such a negative way and a positive way. All the insecurities and anxieties I had felt moments ago, washed away as we wandered through the showrooms talking and laughing. "Hey, I want to show you something." She said grabbing arm, as I clutched onto the box that contained my new tv stand. Astrid lead me up onto the second floor parking lot, it was deserted with only a few cars and stray carts scattered about.

"This is exciting."

She smacked me, and grabbed onto one of the flat carts for furniture. "Get on."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Why?" I said cautiously.

"You can't really tell by looking, but the ground here is wavy."

"I don't like where this is going."

Astrid pushed the cart over to me and sat me in it by pushing down on my shoulders. "It's really fun, trust me." She took the box from my hands and sat it by the door. "You might want to hold on."

I gripped onto the cart. "Maybe you should-" Without warning, Astrid began running at full speed, which was pretty damn fast, pushing the cart across the parking lot. She was right, there were waves, I could feel them as we went up and down on the asphalt. Suddenly Astrid jumped onto the cart and let out a triumphant cry as we sped forward. When we slowed she jumped off the back and stopped the cart. "Astrid, do me a favour."

"What?" She asked breathlessly.

"Give me a turn to push."


	8. Chapter 8

**Sunday is now my official day for updating so always check on Sundays! Some new characters introduced, tell me what you think of how I modernized them, I wasn't sure what to do with them but I hope you like what I chose in the end :)**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>The floors had been buffed to near perfection, they were so shiny I could clearly see my own reflection in them. My dirty scuffed shoes and wrinkled clothes stood out amongst the suits and dress shoes as I walked towards the front desk. The receptionist sat busily typing away at her computer. "Berk Manufacturing, how may I help you?"<p>

"I, uh, I'm here for-"

"Oh, Hiccup!" Her face lit up instantly. "I'll tell your father that you're here."

I shook my hands. "Oh, that's okay, I can go up myself."

"Alright then, he's in his office, I'll call an elevator for you."

"Thanks." I said as I walked off towards the elevators. It was a long ride up to the top floor of the building, and every once in a while somebody would recognize me and greet me or ask me how school was going. I finally stopped right in front of his door, it had a big shiny nameplate that said; _Stoick the Vast, Chief Executive Officer. _I pushed the door open and walked in, I saw him sitting at his desk, still just a enormous as always, staring into his computer screen.

"Hiccup." He stood up from his desk. "Do you need something?"

I pulled out a card. "It's your birthday, remember? Uh, I got you a card."

He walked over, took the card from my hand and read from it aloud. "Today is your birthday, I got you this card." He opened it. "...And this is the inside of it." After he had read it he looked up from the card obviously puzzled by it, trying to feign enjoyment. "It's, very simple."

"It's supposed to be simple, that's the joke. You know because-" I stopped knowing that explaining the joke to him wouldn't make it any more funny, and it definitely wouldn't make things less uncomfortable. "Nevermind, happy birthday."

"Thank you, for the card." He cleared his throat. "How's school going?"

"Fine."

He nodded. "Right, uh, making friends?"

"Yeah." I glanced at the door. "Well, I better get, uh, back you know."

"Right, of course." We started walking towards the door. "I can-"

"No, it's okay, I can find my way out."

He opened the door for me. "Right."

"See you, then." I said as he shut the door, I started walking back down the hall, glad I had gotten all that over with. I felt stupid ever thinking he would understand the card, I should have gotten him an actual gift but there wasn't really anything he wanted. Then, a large rough hand plonked onto my shoulder.

"Well, well, are you two actually celebrating this year?"

I turned around to a friendly face, one of my dad's old friends and head of the IT department, Gobber. "Not really, I just gave him a card."

"I suppose that's better than nothing." He said with a crooked smile. "You didn't get him a joke card did you?" I sighed. "I see, well at least you know not to make that mistake again, right?" Gobber had always been there for me when my parents had not, which was quite often. I remember the days when my dad would bring me into the office because he had some unexpected business to deal with, it always took longer than he said it would, on those days Gobber would invite me into his office or show me around the building. When I got older, he would teach me about his job, that's how I got into programming. For a little amount of time it was nice, I had something I was good at and it was something that made my dad proud of me, rather than his usual disappointment. The delusion was short lived as his admiration morphed into expectations, expectations that I couldn't live up to, expectations that I did not want to live up to. "So is there anything new going on in school?"

I sat in his office feeling a bit nostalgic. "Not much, classes are going well."

"Your father said you're rooming with a friend, that's good, you never had any real close friends in high school."

"Actually, I have a few friends." I said perking up. "They all live on the same floor as us."

Gobber turned to look at me, with an almost disbelieving expression. "Wow, that's great. Who are they?"

"Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and, Astrid."

It was always apparent to me that Gobber had a sixth sense when it came my adolescent problems. "Astrid, huh?" He said grinning at me.

"She doesn't like me like that."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I shrunk into my seat, the mysterious basketball guy and the unknown events on Halloween night weighed heavily on my mind, if Astrid was that kind of a girl, maybe I shouldn't get involved with her. "She likes, athletic guys. Guys who can do backflips."

Gobber wheeled his chair a little closer to me. "You just need confidence, the ladies like confidence more than backflips."

"I don't know about that." I muttered, my mind wandered to Snotlout. "She knows plenty of confident guys, and she doesn't like most of them, at least not that way."

"Well, you know her better than I do." Gobber said wheeling back to his desk. "Why don't you just ask her what kind of guy she likes?"

I scoffed. "Wh-, I can't do that, it would be way too obvious." Everyone was trying to make it sound easy, like confessing to someone for the first time was nothing to be worried about. It was everything to be worried about. Astrid wasn't just a girl I had a crush on, she was my friend, and aside from toothless, maybe even my best friend. To not be worried about losing that was impossible. "Hey Astrid, can I talk to you?"

She looked over at me as I stuck my head out of my room. "Sure." She stuffed her keys back into her pocket, walked over and entered my room. "What's up?"

I shut the door, Toothless slunk out from under my bed and started rubbing up against Astrid's leg. I didn't know a lot about Astrid, I didn't know what exactly she had done that night, but I knew I liked her and that she made me happy. So screw what Snotlout and Tuffnut had said, I didn't believe that Astrid was like that. "You know...what girls like right? In guys, I mean."

Astrid sat down on my bed. "Yeah, I guess so."

"You see, Fishlegs has a crush on a girl." I cleared my throat. "He's too embarrassed to talk about it to anyone but me, so I figured I'd ask you for him. Just...don't tell him I told you."

"Fishlegs has a crush." She confirmed eyeing me.

I nodded. "Yup, so do you have any...pointers? I mean, what do you like in guys?"

"Well,"

* * *

><p>"What did you tell him?"<p>

"You know, the typical stuff." I said shutting my locker. "Be polite, open doors for her, dress nicely, stuff like that."

Ruffnut pulled her pants up and started doing the buttons. "You don't particularly like any of that."

"No, but Heather probably does." I dug through my bag and pulled out a hair band

"What?" Ruffnut shook her head. "I thought this was about Fishlegs."

I started putting my hair into a braid. "He's obviously lying because he's too embarrassed to ask about himself, he doesn't want anyone to know it's him. If I'm going to help him, I've got to do it sneakily, that's the only way he'll accept it."

"How do you know Heather likes those things?" Ruffnut asked shoving an antiperspirant under her shirt. "You barely know the girl."

I shrugged. "From what I saw, she seemed like an ordinary, boring, nice girl. Isn't that what nice girls like?"

"I wouldn't know." Ruffnut snickered. "I just think you should confirm, what if you're wrong about her, and Hiccup messes up?"

I crossed my arms. "So what, now you're the responsible one?"

Ruffnut stuffed her gym clothes into her bag. "I just like being the devil's advocate." She gave me a side glance. "You forgot to take your gym shirt off."

"So then what do you suggest I do? I can't just ask her, it'll embarrass Hiccup." I said as I pulled my shirt over my head. "I wouldn't even know where to find her."

"What's that?"

I picked up my shirt to put on. "What's what?"

Ruffnut pointed to a bruise on my side. "That."

"It's just a bruise, I got it a little while ago during practice." I replied pulling my shirt on. "What do you think I should do?"

"Well, you know her name and you know she's a lit major." Ruffnut said hoisting her bag onto her shoulder. "You could just ask around, someone's got to know who she is, or who her friends are, you can ask them."

I picked my bag up and we started walking out of the change rooms. "That's actually a pretty good idea, do you know what building most of the literature classes take place in?"

"I think near the east end?" Ruffnut said rubbing her chin.

"Right."

* * *

><p>"You told her what?" Fishlegs roared at me violently spinning his chair around to face me. "Why would you tell her something like that?"<p>

Toothless yelped at the sudden yelling and leapt off of my lap, to return under my bed. "Relax, she's not going to tell anyone about it."

Fishlegs glared at me. "You should have asked me first."

"I know, I'm sorry." I said sighing. "I didn't figure you'd say yes, and I didn't have anyone else, I don't exactly have a lot of friends."

"Of course I would have said no, and not just for the obvious reason." He said shaking his head at me. "But also because it was a terrible, terrible idea, she's so obviously going to see through you."

"What do you mean?"

"It's the oldest cliche in the book, Hiccup." Fish said in a matter-of-fact tone. "If anyone's talking about 'a friend's problem' it's definitely, one hundred percent, not their friend's problem. Have you ever even watched any cartoon shows?"

I felt my stomach clench up. "So what are you saying?"

"She knows, man."

"Are you sure?" I said straightening up. "I mean, she never said anything."

Fishlegs shook his head. "That's even worse, it probably means she felt too awkward to call you out, what did she tell you to do?"

"Uhm, be polite, dress nice, pull chairs out, stuff like that."

"That sounds pretty standard." Fishlegs started biting his lip. "I don't think she wanted to tell you her personal preferences, she might be weirded out by you asking."

I ran my hands through my hair, and dipped my head down. "Shit, what should I do? Is it too late already?"

"No, we can do some damage control." Fishlegs said trying to reassure me. "We need to confuse her, tell her that I tried out her suggestions and it didn't work. Tell her you don't need any more advice."

"What's that going to do?" I asked looking up at him.

"She knows you didn't try it out on her yet, so she'll be confused, maybe she'll think it was something else."

I stood up. "Alright, it's worth a try." I was shaking from head to toe as I walked down the hall towards Astrid's room. I looked behind me, and I could see the door to my room opened just a crack, Fishlegs was likely peeking out to watch. I found myself walking slower and slower down the hall, until the dreaded moment when I finally reached her door. I reached up and gave the door a light knock, the door swung open almost immediately.

"Hiccup." She smiled. "What's going on?" My eyes shifted around her room and caught sight of Ruffnut. She noticed the direction of my eyes and shut the door, shuffling a few steps into the stairwell. "Is something wrong?"

"It didn't go so well..." I rubbed the back of my neck. "With Fishlegs."

She gasped. "Oh, gods, I'm sorry, is there anything I can...?"

"No, it's alright." I said shaking my hands. "I just thought you'd want to know, he won't be needing any advice."

Astrid grabbed both my shoulders and gave me a determined stare. "Don't worry Hiccup, I'm going to fix this." Then she ran back into her room, and within seconds ran back out and hurried down the stairs.

I looked down the hall, where Fishlegs' head was now completely visible. "What the hell just happened?"

* * *

><p><strong>So you've probably noticed by now that I didn't change any of the characters names and made their original name a nick-name. It's a little stranger when I realized that Stoick doesn't really have a last name...so anyway I just want to address this for anyone who might be confused, I'm just going to leave all the names as they are, weird or not. I find it's a waste of time coming up with a bunch of fake names that will likely be rarely used later on or possibly confuse people as to who is who. So I'm just going to pretend the story takes place in a universe where names are weird like this.<strong>

**Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A more Astrid-centric chapter this time, so the first POV is Astrid's this time around. I'm not sure whether or not I should wait longer to get them together or not, I kinda want to get them together soon, but I'm a super impatient person so tell me what you guys think I should do. **

**Hope you guys enjoy, review please!**

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><p>My bed made a fwoomp sound as I collapsed onto it. "Ugh." Ruff continued staring at her computer screen without saying a word. "Uuuuuugh." I repeated more dramatically.<p>

Ruffnut sighed and looked over her laptop at me. "What?"

"I've been asking around for over a week now." I sat up. "Nobody in the literature department knows a girl named Heather, so either she's lying about something or she's really _that_ boring."

"I'd go with the latter."

"Well how am I supposed to find her then?" I groaned pushing my face into my pillow. "She's a frakin' ghost!"

"Doesn't Hiccup have her number?" Ruffnut asked. "Just ask him for it."

I scowled at her. "Sneakily remember? I need to do this sneakily."

"Gods, why don't you just let him find someone on his own?"

"You know how superficial girls our age can be." I said. "You guys did it to Hiccup too, just because he's skinny and a little dorky. Hiccup is a really great guy and he deserves to have someone. I just want him to be happy."

Ruffnut made a puking motion. "Ugh, why don't _you_ just date him, it would be faster." I opened my mouth to respond but I nothing came out. Ruff slowly looked up at me from behind her screen. "Holy shit, do you like him?"

"No!" I replied rather defensively.

Ruffnut look at me with skeptical eyes. "You two spend an awful lot of time together."

"I also spend a lot of time with you." I shot back. "We're close friends, alright?"

There was an aggressive knock on the door, Ruff and I both looked at each other. I stood up, walked over to the door and opened it, Dagur stood there looking just as smug as ever. As soon as I saw it was him I went to slam the door shut but he stopped the door with his foot and pried it open. "Did you get the jersey?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" I spat back trying to provoke him. "Now let go of my door."

Dagur stubbornly kept his firm grip on the door. "The football team is being generous here, my dad won't be so agreeable in the future." He said as he reached out to touch me.

"We both know this has nothing to do with your dad, and everything to do with you." I said swatting his hand away. "I'm not interested, so kindly _fuck off_."

"That jersey wasn't cheap you know, you need to pay for it." He smirked at me. "We could make an exception if you join however."

My eyes rolled so far back into my head, they must have been completely white. "In your dreams."

"You're not so far off with that one." He sneered, grabbing one of my wrists.

I wrenched it out of his grasp and and reeled away from him. "You're disgusting."

"It's very simple, pay for the jersey, or join the team."

"I never gave it to her." We both turned, and saw Hiccup standing just outside his door. "You can't charge her for it, she never received it."

"Hiccup-"

"Didn't I tell you it was important?" Dagur barked angrily. "What the hell did you do with it?"

Hiccup cringed a little. "I...threw it out."

Dagur's eyes burned and he stomped over to Hiccup and grabbed him by the collar. "You don't want to get on my bad side, you little shit."

"Let go of him, Dagur." I yelled out running up to them. "This has nothing to do with him."

He tightened his grip on Hiccup's collar and glared at me. "What? You're protecting this loser?"

"Don't call him that." I warned.

Dagur scoffed. "I tell it like it is. Why can't I call a loser a loser?"

"You want to say that one more time?" I growled lowly clenching my fists.

He smirked smugly. "He's a los-" Before the word could fully exit his mouth my fist made contact with his face and he tumbled to the ground. Dagur looked up at me, shocked, a hand clutching his reddened cheek. "You can't punch me!"

"You want a bet?" I asked cracking my knuckles.

Dagur scrambled to his feet and narrowed his eyes menacingly. "You-, I'll tell the dean you attacked me."

"Fine, tell him." I shot back narrowing my eyes back. "But I'll tell him you assaulted Hiccup, and that you were threatening and harassing me." I rested an arm on Hiccup's shoulder. "I have a witness, what do you have?"

"Actually you have two witnesses." Ruffnut said stepping outside of our room.

Fishlegs peeked out of Hiccup's room. "Make that three."

The door across the hall opened and Tuffnut and Snotlout both stepped out. "Yeah, we were here too, so make that four, I mean, five." Tuffnut said grinning. Dagur grunted angrily and stormed off, roughly pushing past me and Hiccup.

Everyone snickered at him and returned to their rooms, I looked over at Hiccup. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I nodded at him and started walking back to my room. "Sorry, I didn't really help much."

I turned to smile at Hiccup. "You were more help than you think."

He smiled back. "Thanks for standing up for me."

"Yeah, me too." I brushed my bangs away from my eyes. "That was really brave of you."

"I'll guess I'll see you on Dawn of the Dragon Racers night."

A thought popped into my head. "Oh hey, do you think you could invite Heather?"

"Heather?"

"Yeah, maybe she'll like it too." I said. "I was hoping to get to know her a little better."

He shrugged. "Sure, I'll give her a call."

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><p>I cracked open a can of cat food and dumped half of it into Toothless' food dish, as I pressed my cellphone against my ear with my shoulder. The ring tone finally stopped and a female voice answered the phone. "Hey, Heather? Yeah. I was wondering if you watched the show Dawn of the Dragon Racers? No? Well that's- Astrid wanted you to come to watch an episode with us but, oh. Well we're kind of in the middle of the series. Okay, sure. We're supposed to do it on Friday, when is good for you? Great, that's perfect. Okay, bye."<p>

"Is Heather going to come regularly now?" Fishlegs asked.

I set the can and my phone on my desk. "I doubt it, she doesn't seem like the type."

"Why did Astrid want to invite her anyway?"

I shrugged. "Who knows." Toothless scarfed down his food and Fishlegs eyed me suspiciously in silence. "What is it?"

"I'm just surprised...you're not panicking about what happened earlier." He said cautiously.

"Why would I be?"

Fishlegs went quiet for a second, trying to think of the best way to say what he wanted to say. "It's just, most guys would be upset being saved by the girl he likes, is all, not that you should be upset. I'm just surprised you aren't."

"She punched a guy in the face for calling me a loser." I said chuckling. "I don't know about you, but that's a pretty good sign if you ask me."

Fishlegs nodded. "Yeah, you're right." When he turned around to face his desk a large pile of papers and books tumbled off of his desk and onto the ground. "Shoot." He mumbled bending over to pick everything up.

I stepped over and began helping him when I noticed a folded up map under a pile of Snoggletog flyers. "Are you going somewhere?" I asked Fishlegs handing the map to him as he re-stacked all the papers back onto his desk.

"My mom wants to visit her parents this year so we're driving out to where they live for Snoggletog." He explained. "We don't visit a lot so I printed out a map."

"A little early to be preparing for Snoggletog isn't it?"

Fishlegs gathered up all the flyers and dumped them onto his desk. "I like getting everything done early, besides we're leaving as soon as winter break starts, and all my gifts need to be wrapped, packed and ready to go before then. And I have a big extended family."

"You're leaving that early?" I asked, a little taken aback.

He nodded. "Sure, it takes about a day's drive just to get there, so I may as well spend as much time with them as possible."

"Are you going to be there the whole winter break?"

"Of course, Snoggletog is all about family right?" He looked up at me. "Why?"

I shook my head and returned to my desk. "Just wondering." I couldn't tell him that I had thought he was going to spent winter break in the dorms with us. Fishlegs was too excited to visit his family. Snoggletog was about family, he was right, and it was a little depressing that I didn't have any intention of spending it with what little family I had. This year it wouldn't be so lonely, I had friends to spend it with, and even if Fish was going away for the holidays I had grown surprisingly attached to everyone, the twins, even Snotlout.

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><p>The guys all immediately took a liking to Heather, I don't know what it is about shy girls that makes guys gravitate towards them, but it was a little jarring how shamelessly they all hit on her. They all seemed to cater to her every whim with gusto, even Fishlegs was acting overly polite and accommodating around her. Heather, on the other hand seemed only interested in Hiccup and she stayed glued to his side. Whatever disaster had occurred that made Hiccup think it was over, had obviously blown over, because they were getting along better than ever.<p>

"So, Heather, I tried to find someone in the literature department who knew you and I couldn't find anyone."

She smiled at me. "Well none of my classmates really talk to me much."

"Wha-, that's crazy." Snotlout said winking. "A girl like you should be the center of attention."

For some reason the gratification I thought I would get from helping the two of them get along never came, I wanted to like Heather, but the more time I spent around her the more fake she seemed and the more suspicious I got. She got along great with Hiccup and I was happy for him, but I couldn't ignore my gut, and my gut did not like Heather, not one bit.

"So you guys are all here on sports scholarships?"

"Well my scholarship isn't a sports scholarship, but pretty much." Fishlegs confirmed.

Heather smiled widely. "Wow, are you guys on full scholarships?"

"Nah, only Astrid's on full." Ruffnut said. "She's lucky, she even gets money for room and board."

Heather turned to Hiccup. "What about you Hiccup?"

"Nope, no scholarship here." He said scratching his head awkwardly. "I'm the dummy who had to pay."

"Did your dad pay for you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, that's right." Heather suddenly raised her voice. "How was your dad's birthday? Did you visit him?"

Hiccup sighed. "Yeah, I tried, it didn't turn out so well. It was really weird and awkward."

"It was your dad's birthday?" Fishlegs asked.

"Yeah, it was on the 13th, right Hiccup?" Heather said smiling at Hiccup.

It was a weird uncomfortable feeling, Heather, who was almost a stranger to Hiccup not that long ago, suddenly seemed so much closer to him. She knew when his dad's birthday was when no one else had known. It was surreal the way she asked how it had been, as if they were old friends or she was his girlfriend. The way he sighed and spoke as if he was hoping for her reassurance, about an old issue, an issue she knew all too well. I didn't know what they were talking about and I felt so impossibly far away from him in that moment, how did Heather get so close without me noticing? Maybe I was being melodramatic, but I felt replaced, and it wasn't a good feeling.

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><p><strong>Some of Astrid's inner-thoughts, tell me what you think, and thanks for reading!<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**I stuck this chapter in last-minute and barely made it in time, phew! A lot of Astrid's thoughts in this one too, a little fluffy this time. **

**Enjoy and review! Thanks guys.**

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><p>"Who is it?"<p>

"It's me."

Astrid opened the door for me. "Sorry, just making sure it's not Dagur again."

"Don't worry about it." I said grinning. "I had some homework, and since everyone's out I came to join you." I gestured to my laptop which was snugly tucked under my arm. "Ruffnut told me you were getting a head start on exams."

Astrid moved out of the way so I could enter. "Ruff said that?"

"Well, not exactly." I shuffled past her and took a seat on her bed. "She said you bailed on her so you could be the most over-prepared student in human history, I had to interpret what she said from there."

Astrid laughed and shut the door. "I'm glad there's someone who understands her." She sat down in front of her laptop, which was on her desk. "What homework do you have? Programming or-"

"Zoology." I responded. "I can usually finish my computer stuff really fast, it just comes naturally me. Zoology takes takes me more time and patience."

"I think it's admirable." Astrid said smiling at me. "You could just stick with what you're good at, but you're willing to put the work into learning something new."

"Thanks."

I opened up my laptop and started working. The room was quiet, Astrid sat at her desk reading from her laptop silently. I sat on her bed, my back against the headboard, hands hovering over my keyboard, waiting to have something to type. Astrid's gentle breathing, and her occasional sighs was such a comforting sound it would make me lose my train of thought. I watched as she fiddled with the end of her braid, twisting it and twirling it around her finger.

"Hey, does definitely have an-" Astrid began without turning to look at me.

"No A."

"Right, thanks."

There was something about being around Astrid, even if we weren't talking or looking at one another, her presence was soothing to me.

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><p>I couldn't concentrate all day, ever since Heather had joined our Dawn of the Dragon Racers night I felt irked. Not just because she took over the whole thing, or because I kept wondering if she was going to join in again, but because I was the one who invited her in the first place. I didn't like how I felt around her, and I really didn't like how I felt about her and Hiccup. Worst of all, I couldn't think of anything in particular that I didn't like about her, I just didn't.<p>

As I sat there, with Hiccup a few feet away from me on my bed, my mind couldn't help but drift off to thoughts about what Ruffnut had said. _"Gods, why don't you just date him, it would be faster."_ I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but after Heather visited I had to wonder if she was right. _"Holy shit, do you like him?"_ Did I like Hiccup? I originally had adamantly denied it, and it wasn't to hide anything, it was genuine, or at least I thought it was. But now, I wasn't so sure.

I looked at Hiccup out of the corner of my eye. _"You two spend an awful lot of time together."_ It was true, I spent most of my free time with Hiccup, and I always had such a good time with him, but that didn't necessarily mean that I liked him.

There was probably no use in worrying about it anyway, Hiccup liked Heather. I focused on my screen and continued working. "Hey, does definitely have an-" I asked without looking at him.

"No A."

"Right, thanks." I fumbled with the side of my laptop, brushing my fingers against the bumps and ridges. I decided to start studying a different class, maybe switching topics would help me focus. "I think I left my USB in that drawer, can you check for me?" I said pointing towards my bedside table.

"Sure." He said moving his laptop off of his lap, and leaning over towards the table. He put his left hand down on the table for support but before even opening the drawer he retracted and grabbed his hand. "Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"I think I cut myself."

I pushed away from my desk and walked over to Hiccup. "Oh, crap, it's my fault, I'm sorry." I looked at his hand. "I broke a glass yesterday, I should have cleaned up better." I looked up at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said flashing me a crooked smile.

I looked back down at his bleeding hand and notice a small piece of glass stuck in his palm. "There's a shard, we need to get it out." I lowered my face into my hand. "Gods, all I do is injure you."

Hiccup laughed. "It's okay, really."

I grabbed a pair of tweezers off of Ruffnut's desk and peered at the shard of glass from above, slowly I moved the tweezers towards his hand. Hiccup watched as well and I could feel the heat from his forehead less than an inch away from my own. I could also feel a few strands of his hair brushing against my temples, it only made me nervous.

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><p>Astrid held my hand steady and surprisingly gently, "It's not that deep." The tweezers dipped down and before I knew it, she had already gotten the bloody piece of glass out. "There you go." Astrid dropped the shard into the garbage and went to her bag and started rummaging through it. "Let me get you a bandage."<p>

"You're not going away for the winter break are you?"

Astrid pulled a band-aid out of her bad and smiled at me. "No, not me, my family isn't really the celebration type you know?" She opened the bandage and placed it on my hand. "Though if they were, I probably wouldn't go anyway."

I chuckled. "I know what you mean."

"So, your dad's birthday passed recently?" Astrid asked gathering up the bandage packaging. "I'm surprised Heather knew, you guys must be pretty close."

I looked down at my hand. "Not really, it just came up one day, she said she had a similar problem with her mom." Astrid walked over and sat down beside me on her bed. "I ended up visiting him, it was really awkward, I probably shouldn't have bothered."

"I think that every time I visit my family." Astrid said sighing. "I Keep going back though."

"Don't we all." I looked over at her. "They're our parents, we're always going to want them to be proud of us."

Astrid shrugged. "At the moment I'm not really concerned about that." She looked over at me. "If your dad wants you to take over so badly, it's probably because he believes in you, I bet he's more proud of you than you think."

I smiled. "Thanks."

Astrid loosened her braid and started redoing it. "You should go home for Snoggletog Hiccup, I think your father would want you there."

"What about you?"

"My parents were never into Snoggletog, it's not a big deal." She continued her braid and tied it up with a hair band. "I'm used to it now." I watched as her braid slipped from her shoulder onto her back, and I think she noticed that I was looking at her braid because she leaned towards me and started a small braid just behind my ear. It was a very nice, feeling her fingers working in my hair.

"I haven't spent Snoggletog with my dad in a long time." I said trying to keep my head straight. "You guys are the first friends I've made that are my age, I want to spend it with you this year, my dad will be around, maybe if things get better I can celebrate with him next year."

"Next year, right," Astrid mumbled releasing the little braid she had made in my hair.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. "Just a second." I said quietly leaving her room and stepping out into the hall. "Hello?"

_"Hiccup."_

"Oh hey dad." I moved into the stairwell. "What is it?"

_"So, you know you're welcome to company Snoggletog party,"_

"That's alright, not really my scene."

_"Right, are you going anywhere this year?"_

"I think I'm going to stay at the dorms and spend Snoggletog with my friends."

_"Oh, alright, just checking then." _He paused. "_Well, I won't take anymore of your time."_

"Okay, bye."

* * *

><p>A part of me wanted Hiccup to stick around for Snoggletog, but I didn't want to take away a chance for him to spend it with his family. There wasn't a holiday that went by where I didn't wish my uncle was still able to celebrate with me, and the last thing I wanted was for Hiccup to regret all the Snoggletogs he didn't spend with his father. I had gotten used to spending the holidays alone, another year wouldn't kill me.<p>

"Oh hey dad." I could hear him talking outside my room. He would probably spend it with his dad, I could tell he still cared about him, even if he was frustrated with him at times. I still wasn't sure about my feelings, but it would be best if I ignored them, Heather and Hiccup would be alright. I moved back to my desk and continued working.

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><p><strong>This chapter is a bit short, sorry about that! Next two should be longer.<strong>

**Hiccup's issues were already there since he was the protagonist of the movies, unfortunately but not so unfortunately Astrid didn't really have many problems to carry over so I've had to create problems for her. They haven't fully been shown yet but they will slowly reveal themselves, so watch out for them, maybe guess what they are and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Been really busy with Christmas lately, and I haven't been writing much so don't be surprised if I skip a week or two in the near future. I'll try my best to avoid that but I've got a lot of baking to do. Happy Holidays everyone :)**

**I hope you enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

><p>Students swarmed in the main square as everyone bustled to prepare for the winter fair coming up. It was supposed to be a little celebration for the end of the semester right before the winter break. In theory it was a great idea, but with the all stress and craziness of exams the last thing anyone needed was the added pressure of organizing a fair. The work had been divided up amongst the departments so most of my time was spent with Fishlegs, and I barely spoke to Astrid or the others.<p>

Fishlegs was a very serious studier, he didn't like any distractions and he took it upon himself to read everything at least seven times before moving on. I had become so accustom to the noisiness of having the gang over that the silence in our room with only the faint sound of clicking keys, a sound I used to be quite fond of, was eerie and unsettling. "I think I'm going to get something to eat." I announced moving toothless off of my lap, as I expected, Fishlegs didn't reply. It had already gotten quite cold out and the ground was covered in a thick layer of fresh snow, not yet turned gray. As I shuffled towards the cafeteria, I saw Astrid walking through the park, a scarf wrapped tightly around her neck, nose and cheeks turning red from the cold, and a text book tucked under each arm. "Astrid." I called after her.

She smiled as I jogged over to her. "Hiccup."

"Long time no see."

Astrid sighed, and I could see her breath. "Yeah, well the library is my new home these days. Shouldn't be much longer now." She blew a strand of hair out of her face, and I reached over and brushed it away for her. "How's studying going?"

"That depends." I said. "I think I'm doing well as far as exams go, can't say the same for my sanity. I think I'm going stir-crazy."

She laughed. "Don't worry there's only a few days left, how many more exams do you have?"

"Just two."

"Keep truckin then, I should probably be-"

"Wait," I said tugging on her sleeve. "Don't go yet, we've barely spoken all week."

Astrid shook her head and smiled. "It's only a week, Hiccup."

"Can't you spare a little break?" I pleaded.

I could see the resolve on her face fade away and she sighed with a smile like a parent giving into childish demands. "Alright, I guess I could use a break."

"What do you want to do?"

Astrid smirked at me and set her books down on a bench. "I have an idea." She suddenly whipped around and a snowball crashed into me, causing me to stumble backwards.

"Hey!" I grabbed a handful of snow from the ground but Astrid had already hidden herself behind the bench. "Really mature." Astrid flung another snowball at me and hit me in the shoulder, I quickly retreated behind a tree. "It's going to be like that is it?"

I could hear her laugh. "It's the first snow of the winter, I couldn't help myself." I went to peek around the tree at her but I had to retract immediately to avoid being hit by another snowball. "You can do better than that, Hiccup."

"Don't judge, I'm a beginner." I retorted, scrambling to the ground to make a snowball. As I fumbled with the snow around the bottom of the tree Astrid sprung up and ran over catching me by surprise. She chucked a snowball at my gut and continued running. I chased after her throwing a snowball at her as she ran, I missed by a longshot. Astrid jumped behind a tree, and she tried to fake me out by dodging around the trunk but I managed to nail her in the head with a handful of snow before tackling her to the ground. "Gotcha." It was then that I noticed our faces were inches apart and a stumbled off of her. "Sorry, I got a little carried away."

Astrid laughed awkwardly and flicked a little snow at me. "It's no big deal."

"What are you guys doing?" We turned to see Heather standing over us, an amused look across her face. "You're all covered in snow."

"Just letting off a little steam." Astrid said brushing snow off of herself as she stood up. She reached out a hand to help me up and I took it. "I should probably get going then." She murmured before slogging through the snow back to her text books.

Heather turned back to me and smiled. "Happy exams."

I flashed a small grin. "Thanks."

"You doing anything for Snoggletog?"

I brushed the snow out of my hair and rubbed at my runny nose. "Not really."

"You and your dad don't seem like you really celebrate a lot." She said stuffing her hands into her pockets. "No birthdays, no Snoggletog."

I shrugged. "He likes throwing parties for his employees, it's just that we don't talk much, and since it's just the two of us that unfortunately means no Snoggletog."

"That sucks."

"Nah, he can have it with his employees, and I can have it with my friends. It's probably better this way."

* * *

><p>Exams was the worst time of the year, it was nothing but long nights without sleep and way, way too much caffeine. I had to maintain my high grades in order to hold onto the one thing I could not afford to lose, my scholarship. I spent most of my time in the library to steer clear of any distractions and to have an excuse to avoid talking to anyone who dared bother me. I gathered up my books for a much needed visit to the gym, and as I exited the library the bitter winter air hit me and it was refreshing after being cooped up for so long. I walked briskly and took a shortcut through the park to waste as little time as possible.<p>

"Astrid."

I almost ignored the voice in an attempt to keep my study schedule on track, but I recognized it as a certain someone and I couldn't help myself. "Hiccup." I hadn't seen him in what felt like such a long time, seeing his face as he approached me gave me comfort and I smiled.

"Long time no see."

I sighed breathlessly. "Yeah, well the library is my new home these days. Shouldn't be much longer now." I tried to blow a hair away from my face, and to my surprise Hiccup reached over and moved it with his hand. My eyes instinctively trailed off to the side, and I felt a little embarrassed by the gesture and a little embarrassed at the ratty coils my hair had become from the lack of a much needed shower. "How's studying going?" I said trying to brush my embarrassment away.

"That depends." He said. "I think I'm doing well as far as exams go, can't say the same for my sanity. I think I'm going stir-crazy."

I laughed, something I hadn't done in a while. "Don't worry there's only a few days left, how many more exams do you have?"

"Just two."

The way he said 'just two' made me a little uneasy, I had two exams left as well but I would never describe them as 'just two'. I felt a little of the urgency that had gone away at the sound of Hiccup's voice and I could feel the stress creeping up on me again. "Keep truckin then, I probably should be-"

"Wait," He said tugging on my sleeve. "Don't go yet, we've barely spoken all week."

"It's only a week, Hiccup." I said trying to convince myself just as much as I was trying to convince him to brush it off.

Hiccup didn't let go of my sleeve. "Can't you spare a little break?"

Little by little the part of me that was determined to say no was overpowered and I sighed shaking my head at him. "Alright, I guess I could use a break."

"What do you want to do?" He asked, and a mischievous thought crept into my mind. The fresh snow had been tempting me all day and I figured if I was going to cheat a little I may as well indulge.

I set my books down on a near by bench. "I have an idea." I quickly bunched up some snow from off of the bench forming it into a snowball, then I spun around and hit him right in the gob, and as he stumbled I dove behind the bench and began making another snowball.

"Hey!" He bent down to grab some snow but noticed I had already hidden myself. "Really mature." I snickered and hit him with another, and he ran to hide behind a tree. "It's going to be like that is it?"

This time I let out a loud laugh. "It's the first snow of the winter, I couldn't help myself." I could see his head peek out from behind the tree and I threw a snowball just barely missing him. "You can do better than that, Hiccup."

"Don't judge, I'm a beginner." He called out. I took my opportunity to run over and hit Hiccup with another snowball, before running off to find another hiding spot. Hiccup chased after me and I tried to hide behind a tree but he was on my tail, as I ducked around the trunk to get away he managed to get me right in the face with a cold handful of snow, before attacking me onto the ground. "Gotcha." Hiccup's face was so close to mine I could feel his warm breath, and I was glad it was cold out because my cheeks were already bright pink. He realized immediately how awkward our position was and quickly got off of me. "Sorry, I got a little carried away."

"It's no big deal." I said laughing to try and act normal.

"What are you guys doing?" We turned to see Heather standing over us, an amused look across her face. "You're all covered in snow."

"Just letting off a little steam." I said brushing snow off of myself while standing up, Heather's presence immediately made me uncomfortable. I reached out a hand and hoisted Hiccup up. "I should probably get going then." I said, walking off before either one could protest. I gathered my books up and continued towards the gym, but my face still felt heated and there was an unpleasant feeling in my stomach. I glanced back and saw Heather and Hiccup casually chatting, and I clenched up my jaw. There was no mistaking it, the feeling I had around Heather might be suspicion, but more than anything, it was jealously. As I stood there watching them talk to one another it became so clear to me what was going on, I couldn't deny it, I liked Hiccup, and not like a friend. I regretted that I had tried to set them up, and I regretted that I had not realized my feelings sooner, Hiccup had moved on and I had lost my chance.

* * *

><p>"Well, it was nice chatting, but I should probably get going." I said rubbing the back of my neck.<p>

Heather nodded. "Right, well, good luck with exams and your dad." I nodded back and she trudged off towards the library.

A fist suddenly came into contact with my shoulder. "Putting the moves on her, way to go Hiccup."

I turned to face Snotlout as I held my now tender shoulder. "You know that shoulder was sprained not too long ago." I scolded. "And I'm not putting the moves on anyone, she's just a friend."

"Riiiiight, you going to spend your Snoggletog with that 'friend'?"

I shook my head. "No, I'd rather spend it with you guys this year."

Snotlout snorted with a grin. "Well not with me, my dad has spared no expense, he bought a whole new set of hunting rifles and a new tent. We're going on our traditional Snoggletog hunting trip."

"For how long?"

"The whole two weeks, baby." Snotlout cried out proudly. "I'm going to shoot my first bear if it kills me." He thought for a second. "Okay, not if it _kills _me, but you get the idea."

I furrowed my eyebrows, the Snoggletog I had envisioned was getting less and less populated. I guess I had underestimated the relationships everyone else had with their parents, I was a little envious. "You're leaving for the whole winter break?"

"No worries, man." Snotlout said nudging me. "You'll still have you-know-who to keep you company."

I frowned. "I'm serious, there's nothing going on with her. Didn't Astrid tell you to get off my case about it."

"Well, yeah, but you know she doesn't mean it."

I narrowed my eyes at Snotlout. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, she's trying to hook you guys up and everything." He said. "Oh, but don't tell Tuff I told you."

I rolled my eyes. "Right."

"No for real, she told Ruff and Ruff told Tuff." Snotlout pulled his coat collar up a bit higher. "We all totally thought you secretly liked her."

"What?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Getting a lot of writers block lately, I've used up my buffer so there likely won't be a chapter next week. Sorry about this, I will try my damnedest to produce a chapter as soon ****as I can so check next next Sunday and hopefully I will have something for you then. For now please enjoy this chapter, and please review! Thanks!**

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><p>I clutched onto my hot chocolate without drinking it to keep my hands warm as I stood waiting out by the concession stands. The six of us were meeting for the winter fair, and I would be lying if I said I didn't feel uneasy. It felt hopeless, I could deal with Astrid not reciprocating my feelings, but the thought that she was trying to set me up with another girl was a little too much for me. I had told her, I had told all of them that I didn't like Heather that way but it seemed that it had gone in one ear and out the other. I hadn't seen Astrid since our snowball fight, and now that I was privy to her secret intentions I wasn't sure how to face her. I wasn't even sure if I should confront her about it or not.<p>

"You're early." Ruffnut said walking up to me with Tuffnut.

I turned to greet them. "Hey, how did you do on exams?"

Tuffnut shrugged. "No too bad, not too good, same as usual."

"By that he means passable, but below average." Ruffnut said smirking at her brother.

I scratched the back of my head. "You guys, aren't doing anything with your family for the break are you?"

"Nah, we hate shit like that." Tuff said, and I let out a sigh of relief. "We're going on a road trip with our cousins so we can avoid all that mushy family crap. We're leaving first thing, they won't even see it coming."

My hopes sank, "For the whole break?"

"Duh." Ruffnut snorted. "We've got all year to sit around this place, we should get out while we can, am I right?"

I smiled weakly. "Right." My hopes of finally having a Snoggletog celebration had shriveled up and died, as usual, everyone had something better to do, someone better to be with.

"There they are." Tuffnut called out waving.

I turned and watched as Snotlout, Fishlegs and Astrid walked towards us from the opposite side of the square. My eyes immediately went to Astrid as the three of them pushed through the crowd.

She smiled at me once they had reached us. "Hey."

"Hey." I replied. "What do you guys want to do first? Food?"

"Nah, let's play some carnival games," Snotlout suggested. "I'm a master at carnival games, maybe I'll win you something." He said leaning towards Astrid.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Astrid said rolling her eyes. "Those games are a scam anyway."

Ruffnut gave her a shove. "Don't be a party pooper, they can be fun once in a while."

We all started shambling towards the area with the carnival games. "What kinds of games do you usually play?" Fishlegs asked Snotlout.

"I play the one where you have to knock over the bottles a lot."

Astrid scoffed. "Well now we know why you win so often, they make the bottles so heavy only an athlete would be able to knock them over."

Snotlout grinned at Astrid. "Are you complimenting my strength?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran off to throw hoops and Fishlegs went to play darts, leaving Snotlout, Astrid and myself at the bottle game. I scanned the prizes on display, which strangely seemed to have more of a summer than a winter theme. There were a variety of giant lollipops, some blow-up soccer and basketball themed beach balls, a large stuffed monkey and some smaller stuffed parrots in different colours.

"You going to play?" I asked Astrid.

She shook her head. "No, you go ahead though."

"Which prize do you like the best, Astrid?" Snotlout asked. "I'll get you anything you want."

Astrid held her palms up. "I really don't want anything."

Snotlout leaned over to me discreetly. "What do you think, man? She's sending me weird signals, does she want something or not? She wants a lollipop right?"

"She said she doesn't want anything," I replied. "That means she doesn't want anything."

"Oh come on, it can't be that simple. Chicks play mind games you know."

I sighed. "Well, you're right about one thing."

Snotlout ended up winning two lollipops, a soccer ball and the big monkey after spending far too much on a carnival game, and I had surprisingly managed to win a stuffed parrot.

"What do guys want to do now?"

Astrid glanced off to the right and saw the ice rink a little ways off. "Let's go skating." She suggested. "My class set it up, so I can probably hook you guys up with free skate rentals. You in?"

"Hey, free anything is good with me." Tuffnut said grinning at her.

I shook my head dramatically. "No, no, I can't skate."

Snotlout laughed. "Dude, everyone can skate."

"Relax, you can learn, it's not as hard as you think it is." Astrid said slapping me on the arm, I frowned. "You don't have to be a figure skater, just the basics, I'll teach you myself." I fought back a smile.

Tuffnut started walking forward. "Okay, okay, are we going or are we going?"

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><p>The ice rink was packed with people and we all had to sit on the sidewalk to put on our skates, mine were too damn loose and I tried lacing them up as tight as possible. Hiccup struggled to jam his foot into one of his skates, it was obvious he wasn't used to any type of sports equipment. I leaned over to help him put his skate on but he jerked away from me. "I can do it."<p>

"You need to lace them all the way down before trying to put them on." I pointed out. "They're not sneakers."

He did as I told him and continued stuffing his food in awkwardly. "They're too tight."

"They have too be, you don't want them to fall off."

"They wouldn't fall off so easily if they weren't this heavy." He said sighing. "Do you think I need a helmet?"

I snickered. "Not unless you're in grade school." He huffed. "Just hold onto me, you'll be fine."

Hiccup started stuffing his other foot into his skate. "I'm going to fall, I can feel it. I'm not very good at keeping my balance, there is no way I can learn-"

"Hiccup." I put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll stay with you, you'll be fine."

He nodded and I helped him stand up on his skates, it took him a minute to figure out how to walk on the skates but he managed okay. I stepped onto the ice and Hiccup reluctantly followed, he slipped on the first step and gripped onto me tightly. "Gods, and I thought walking on the ground was difficult."

"You're not supposed to be walking on the ice, you're supposed to be skating."

Hiccup laughed nervously and clung to me, a little too close, I felt my face heat up and I looked away from him. I knew I had feelings for him, and even if he didn't feel the same way, it would probably be best if I told him. We started moving towards the far end of the ice rink and my heart started pounding as I tried thinking of way to tell him, I didn't want to make it awkward. "Hiccup, listen, there's something that I've been meaning to-" Then from over Hiccups shoulder I saw Heather, drifting across the ice with ease, and I suddenly felt a little discouraged, maybe I shouldn't, I didn't want to complicate things. Hiccup liked Heather, and she liked him back, if I confessed now it would only make him distressed. Hiccup was such a good guy, he would probably feel bad about it and it could ruin what he and Heather already had. "Hey, Heather's over there, we should go talk to her."

He looked back at Heather. "Astrid-" I began waving at her, gesturing for her to come over to us. "Don't call her over."

"What? Why?"

"I know what you're doing okay?"

Heather skated over to us, "What's up?"

I furrowed my brows and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Stop trying to hook me and Heather up." Hiccup said pushing away from me, wobbling a little to keep his balance.

"You knew?"

Heather's eyes snapped back and forth between the two of us. "She was trying to hook us up?"

"She thinks we have crushes on each other." Hiccup sighed.

Heather laughed. "I don't have a crush on Hiccup."

"You don't?"

"Neither do- wait, you don't?" Hiccup asked, his head snapping around to look at Heather.

"You thought I had a crush on you too?"

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, everyone kept saying you did…and you always wanted to spend time with me."

"I was just writing an article about your dad." Heather defended.

"You were-" His mouth opened in shock. "You were writing an article about my dad? Why?"

"I was writing a hard-hitting expose about how CEO's have poor relationships with their kids, because of their workload." Heather admitted.

My jaw nearly hit the ice. "Your dad is a CEO?"

"How did you know my dad was a CEO?"

Heather crossed her arms. "Journalist never reveal their sources."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What do you mean journalist?"

"Oh, yeah, the thing is, I'm actually a journalism major."

"You were lying to me?" Hiccup cried out at her. "Just to write an article?"

I stomped my skate against the ice below my feet. "I knew it!"

Hiccup turned to me. "You knew?"

"No, I just knew something was up," I said holding up my hands. "Nobody in the lit department knew who she was, and I could never find her around there."

Heather glared at me. "Were you spying on me?"

"You're one to talk." I growled at her. "And no, I wasn't spying on you, I was going to ask your friends what you liked in guys, since Hiccup was asking-"

She turned back to Hiccup. "You were asking about what I liked in guys?"

Hiccup groaned and threw his head back. "No, I never-" Then his eyes popped open and he looked over at me. "Wait a second, you thought I was asking about her that time? I wasn't asking because of her."

"You weren't?"

"Of course not."

"Then who were you asking for?" I asked.

Hiccup hesitated. "Fishlegs."

I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. "Oh please."

"What, do you believe what Tuffnut and Snotlout say over what I say?" He growled at me.

"That's not-"

Hiccup quickly interrupted me. "You should've come to me first, instead of just believing what everyone else says about me and going behind my back."

"Who told you?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, it matters."

"Snotlout told me okay?" Hiccup yelled throwing his hands down. "Now can you just stop."

I winced and felt a twinge of guilt, I shouldn't have been so angry. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to help"

"There's nothing wrong with being single, you know." He spat.

Before I knew it the anger I had tried to bury suddenly came back to life. "I know that, Hiccup."

"Yeah, alright." He replied sarcastically.

"What's that? You think I believe there's something wrong being single?" I clenched up my jaw and my fists, trying to keep calm. "I'm single."

Hiccup huffed and looked away from me. "What about that basketball guy, you seemed to go along with him pretty fast."

"Who?" My eyes burned in the side of his head. "Are you talking about that guy from Halloween? Seriously?"

"You left with him, remember?"

"So I leave a party with a guy and that automatically means I slept with him?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to." I said through my teeth. "And for your information, no, I did not sleep with a guy I had just met. I haven't even spoken to him since then, so yes, I am single."

"Everyone was just so convinced-"

"You know, I find it pretty fucking funny how much of a hypocrite you are." I said beginning to skate away.

"Astrid-"

I whipped my head around and gave him the dirtiest look I could muster up. "No, this conversation is over, I'm going back."

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><p>"What about that basketball guy, you seemed to go along with him pretty fast." I said looking away, that was a low blow and I knew it, I couldn't even look her in the face as I said it. I was too blinded by anger to realize what I had done.<p>

"Who? Are you talking about that guy from Halloween? Seriously?"

"You left with him, remember?" I said staring at my feet.

"So I leave a party with a guy and that automatically means I slept with him?"

I felt regret, I could see how much I had offended her I knew I had made a terrible mistake. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to." Astrid said gritting her teeth and glaring at me. "And for your information, no, I did not sleep with a guy I had just met. I haven't even spoken to him since then, so yes, I am single."

I should have known it from the start, Astrid wasn't like that. "Everyone was just so convinced-"

"You know, I find it pretty fucking funny how much of a hypocrite you are." She said beginning to skate away.

I couldn't move without falling so I tried to reach out to her. "Astrid-"

Astrid whipped her head around and gave me a horrible expression, she looked furious, but more than anything, she looked hurt. "No, this conversation is over, I'm going back." She turned around and skated away.

Heather and I both stood there silently for a minute, she looked dumbfounded and confused by the escalation of our conversation. "I'm sorry, I didn't think-" She stopped, likely from of lack of words.

"It's not your fault." I said quietly. "Can you help me get back?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks for the patience and support everyone, I'm still working to keep up and hopefully get my buffer back on track. Not certain if I'll produce a chapter next week so for the time being I'll be posting every other Sunday until further notice.**

**I hope you enjoy and please review, I always appreciate reviews!**

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><p>"She hates me."<p>

"She doesn't hate you."

We carried down Fishlegs' suitcases down to the parking lot. "She definitely hates me, hell, I would hate me if I was in her position."

Fishlegs stopped are stared sternly at me. "She doesn't hate you."

"You don't even know what happened."

"So you said some things you shouldn't have." He said opening the door and heading outside. "Maybe she thinks she hates you now, but she doesn't hate you."

We walked over to his mother's car. "She was right, I was being a hypocrite, and a jerk, and an idiot."

"She called you an idiot?"

"No, I added that, but she should have."

Fishlegs and I began loading his things into the back of the car's trunk. "What exactly did you say to her?"

"I fucked up okay? I fucked up bad."

"Just go apologize."

I sighed heavily. "Everytime I try to talk to her she runs off, and if you recall, she's on the track team."

"You should probably let her cool off then, she'll get over it eventually."

"You think?" I said perking up.

Fishlegs shrugged. "I'm just speculating, your guess is as good as mine."

I shut the trunk. "Well if I was to apologize...what should I say? Just saying 'I'm sorry' isn't good enough right? It's got to be better than that."

"It's Snoggletog isn't it? Give her something."

I cringed at the thought. "Astrid's not like other girls, I have a really bad feeling that if I showed up and tried to give her flowers or jewelry now she's probably be even more angry at me."

Fish sighed. "I don't know what to tell you then, just let her cool off." He glanced over his shoulder to where is mom was waiting in the drivers seat. "I've got to go now, but I'll text you okay? And when we get there we can skype."

I nodded and watched as he hopped into the passengers seat and rode off down the street disappearing into the traffic. My Snoggletog was over, the only person who hadn't left to go on vacation was avoiding me like the plague, I guess it was going to be another uneventful holiday. Seven days to Snoggletog, and the eerie silence of studying students had been replaced by the even eerier silence of an empty dorm. The campus had turned into a ghost town, I sure had I chosen the perfect time to pick a fight with the only other person staying behind.

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><p>It was immature of me to avoid Hiccup so much, but I knew the second he apologized with his big stupid green eyes I would forgive him and I didn't want to forgive him, I wanted to be angry at him. I stubbornly clung to my anger like a child and kept replaying the fight in my mind. I told myself that he deserved it, I had never felt so insulted by one person's words in my entire life, nothing had ever hurt quite this badly.<p>

"Just get over it."

I growled over the phone. "Thats easy for you to say, he didn't call you..._easy_."

Ruffnut sighed. "He didn't call you easy."

"He may as well have, he was insinuating it."

"Accidentally."

I huffed stubbornly. "Yeah, well, accidentally feels just as shitty as on purpose does."

I could hear Tuffnut and their cousins being noisy in the back ground. "Has he apologized yet?"

"I haven't let him."

"Well let him for Thor's sake." Ruff said dramatically. "Everyone does stupid shit, and you both did things you shouldn't have but being stubborn about it isn't helping anyone. If your goal here is to make him feel bad about what he said I'm sure he already does, he's a nerd with low self-esteem he's probably beaten himself up about it plenty by now." I kept silent. "Look it's my turn to drive, I'll call you tomorrow, just think about it okay?"

"Okay." I muttered, hanging up the phone.

I glanced out the window at the falling rain, it more like slush though, the weather had warmed up the past few days and slush had been falling almost constantly. Somehow it still felt just as cold as before. The days leading up to Snoggletog seemed to slog by, with no one around and nothing to do it was easy to wallow in my anger, but no matter how much I told myself to blame him, I knew I was also at fault. I should have spoken to him first, he wasn't wrong about that. I let out an exasperated sigh and got up from my bed, everything was closed during Snoggletog so some snacks from the vending machine in the common room would have to do for breakfast. I swung my door open and low and behold Hiccup was there leaning up against the wall beside my door. He turned to look at me and I quickly slammed the door shut in his face.

"Astrid." Hiccup called out from the hall.

My hand stayed tightly gripped around the door knob, I couldn't do this forever, I didn't want to make Hiccup feel bad, not anymore, not on Snoggletog. I slowly opened the door again.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't meant it, I should've-"

"No," I stopped him. "You don't have to- well, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have gone behind your back like that, no matter my intentions. So, you don't have to apologize."

"I do though, I was upset when I found out, but that doesn't excuse what I did, what I said." Hiccup's eyes lowered to his feet. "I regret it, I regretted it the instant I said it, you were right, I was being a hypocrite."

"I'm sorry I avoided you for so long." I said. "I was upset too, I didn't want you to think I was like...that."

Hiccup's head snapped up. "I don't! I never meant any of it, I know you're not that person." He moved his hands up and I noticed a bundle crudely wrapped up in newspaper and tied up with a blue ribbon. Hiccup handed the package to me. "Happy Snoggletog. I, uh, didn't have much time to prepare for this…"

I smiled at him and took it, gingerly removing the wrapping. Inside was the stuffed parrot from the carnival, it was turquoise and yellow with a cartoony unrealistic design. It was knitted, likely made by students and it had a little brown tag tied onto it's tail. "Stormfly" I read off of the tag.

"It kind of lame, but I didn't have anything-"

"I love her." I said hugging Stormfly to my chest. "She's perfect."

Hiccup grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm glad."

"I didn't get you anything."

"Don't worry about it, I just wanted us to be okay. We are okay, right?"

"Yeah, we're okay." I said smiling and nodding at him. "So, you want to grab some chips from the vending machine and have ourselves a little Snoggletog breakfast."

Hiccup sighed with relief. "That sounds nice, yeah." I shut my door behind me and we started walking down the hall towards the common room. "You not the Snoggletog type?"

"I used to be, don't really celebrate anymore." I replied. "You?"

"I think I am, never got much of a chance to experience it." He said as we entered the common room. "I went to company parties and stuff, never really got the family experience though, at least not that I can remember anymore."

I popped a couple coins into the machine and pressed a few buttons. "Right, CEO's son. Hard-hitting expose." I watched as my Cheetos slowly inched closer to the edge. "You know when you said 'family business' I was imagining more of a mom-and-pop shop." I grabbed my chips and turned to look at Hiccup. "Why didn't you tell me? No, never mind, it's none of my business."

"No," He said. "It's not that I was hiding it from you or anything, I just didn't want you guys to treat me differently because of it." Hiccup sighed. "Being open about it hasn't exactly helped me in the past, so I try not to go around advertising it."

"I don't care who your dad is, Hiccup, and I don't think the guys do either." I shuffled out of the way so he could access the vending machine. "But I'll keep it to myself if you want me to."

Hiccup stuffed a crumpled bill into the machine. "It's alright, you can tell them, I trust you."

"Well it's not me you have to worry about." I said opening my bag and munching on a Cheeto. "...what's your dad's company do anyway?" I looked up at him. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

He grabbed his chocolate bar from the machine and undid it's wrapper. "No it's alright, his company is Berk Manufacturing."

"Holy shit." I cursed, whipping my head around to look at him. "So you're seriously rich, no wonder you're not on a scholarship."

Hiccup chuckled. "Correction, my dad is seriously rich." He took a bite from his bar. "I'm not really interested in inheriting all that."

"Aren't you an only child? You don't really have a choice do you?"

He sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

I propped myself up onto one of the tables. "Some things you just can't run away from, Hiccup, but choosing to take responsibility of your inheritance doesn't mean giving up everything that's important to you."

"The thing is, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do," He propped himself up and sat beside me. "Maybe I'd be fine inheriting the business, but I don't want to lock myself into a future I might not want. It's terrifying to think that the decisions I make in the first few years of my life will define the rest of it. What if I make the wrong choice and screw everything up?"

"Nobody said you couldn't change your mind." I said patting him on the back. "Right now it might seem like you're the only one who isn't sure where your life is going, but I'll tell you a secret," He turned to look at me. "Nobody really knows."

"Don't you know? You're always so sure of yourself."

"Nobody." I repeated.

Hiccup chuckled to himself. "I guess self-pity really is what I'm best at."

"Well, we're all good at something." I joked, and Hiccup shot me an amused grin. "Hey, I was wondering..."

Hiccup took another bite from his chocolate bar. "Yeah?"

"Your dad is paying for your room and board right?" He nodded. "So why did you decide to live in this dump? You could have a nice spiffy apartment where pets were allowed, no shared bathroom, your own kitchen...you must be a damn good friend to give all that up just for Fishlegs."

Hiccup shifted his eyes away from me. "This was actually meant to be more of a temporary living situation."

"What happened then?"

He hesitated and began fidgeting and squirming. "I, uh, I stayed because of you."

My heart beat immediately quickened and I felt my stomach churn nervously. I was barely able to choke out any words."What?"

"...I was going to find a new place, but I wanted to stay where you were, I liked you." Hiccup turned away from me. "I still like you."


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14 PHEW!**

**I almost didn't make it this time, just barely finished the chapter today so it's a bit rushed. Not entirely sure how long this fic will be, but I do have quite a few things planned for the future, so it's not even close to ending yet :D**

**Now that Hiccup and Astrid are a sorta together, I have a heads up for everyone, this story is not going to have a lot of touching or kissing going on. Not to say they don't do it at all, if they do it'll probably happen off screen. I want this story to focus more on the emotional aspects of their relationship, and how they deal with problems together. There might be a little physical interactions, but I'm not very good at writing that kind of stuff, I find I'm better at dialogue, so please bare with me.**

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><p>"What happened then?"<p>

I remembered the reason I had stayed and I stiffened at the thought. I couldn't tell her I stayed for her, but no matter how I wracked my brain I couldn't think of a sensible excuse. Maybe I should tell her, my mind wandered to Fishlegs' advice, he had told me to confess more than once, maybe he was right. After everything that had happened, I believed that if she didn't feel the same way, our friendship was strong enough to handle it. "I, uh, I stayed because of you."

She didn't speak for a moment, but to me that moment felt like an eternity of silence. My stomach began to churn and I started to doubt my decision

"What?"

My mouth felt incredibly dry as I spoke. "I was going to find a new place, but I wanted to stay where you were, I liked you. I still like you." I looked away, I felt too uneasy to look at her face.

"Turn around, Hiccup." She said quietly.

"I can't look at you, it's too embarrassing."

"Then cover your eyes."

I did as Astrid said and covered my eyes before turning to face her. I wanted to say something snappy but I was too nervous to think of anything. Just as I was about to peek out I felt something press against my mouth and I froze. After a few seconds it moved away and I removed my hands from my face. Astrid was staring straight at me. "Gods, I hope that's what I think it was."

She smiled. "I feel the same, Hiccup."

I almost didn't believe my ears, and all I could do was stare dumbly at her. "Huh?"

"I like you too."

"Like..._like _like?"

Astrid snickered at me. "Yeah, _like _like."

And then, this Snoggletog wasn't so bad anymore. "Since when?"

She shrugged. "A little while I guess, I figured it out during exams."

"Exams?" I repeated.

"Yeah, why?"

I laughed awkwardly. "I think I've liked you since I moved in," My eyes trailed away from her. "You probably think I'm total weirdo now."

"Of course." She said nudging me. "That's what I like about you."

There was an awkward silence and I felt both extremely happy and extremely uncomfortable at the same time. I could feel Astrid looking at me. "What now?" I said breaking the silence.

She let out a loud laugh. "It's funny, after everything that happened and all my stressing out, I didn't even think we would ever really get here." Astrid sighed. "Now that we're here I don't even know what to do."

"Yeah, same."

"Oh gods." Astrid dropped her face into hands. "What is Ruff going to say? I kept denying it to her, she'll never let me live it down."

I looked over at her. "Actually, could we not tell the guys just yet?"

"Are you embarrassed?"

"No, no," I said shaking my hands. "It's just, uhm, Snotlout might think I'm helping him...hook up with you, I never agreed to it though, I swear."

Astrid gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I believe you, don't worry, I know how he can be sometimes."

"Thanks."

"I can still Ruff though right? She won't tell him."

"No, she'll tell Tuffnut and he'll tell Snotlout." I cocked my head at her. "It happened before remember? The whole Heather thing?"

She nodded. "Right, good point, no telling Ruffnut."

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><p>The big ugly minivan Ruff and Tuff had borrowed to take their road trip came rolling up into the dorm's parking lot first. I could recognize it from a mile away, because of the unmistakably putrid yellow colour it sported. It was just the two of them, they had probably dropped their cousins off before arriving back on campus. I walked down the stairs and across the parking lot to greet them as they climbed out of the van, arguing as usual.<p>

"You need to stop hogging them, it's my turn."

"No way, you're going to put them in your smelly room and stink them up."

I waved one of my hands around to try and get their attention. "Hey, how was the road trip?"

Ruff looked over and grinned at me. "Astrid, you wanna see what our cousins got us for Snoggletog? It's great."

"Sure, what it is?" Ruffnut stretched her arms out and displayed a taxidermied two-headed snake. "That's...great. It's not going in our room is it?"

"Sure is."

"No, it's going in my room." Tuffnut protested.

From the corner of my eye I saw Hiccup coming out of the dorm to join us just in time to watch Fishlegs and his mom drive up. I turned to Ruffnut and Tuffnut who were still arguing over their snake. "Will you two stop fighting? Fishlegs is back."

Tuffnut snatched the snake from his sister and rushed over to the car. "Hey, Fish, check out my snake."

"_Our _snake." Ruff called out before turning to look at me. "So?"

"What?"

She glared at me. "Don't _what _me, you didn't pick up my calls after Snoggletog, did something happen? Did you follow my advice and finally make up with him?"

"Yeah we made up." Ruffnut continued to stare at me. "What is it?"

She huffed, clearly irritated. "What, no juicy details, just, 'we made up' the end?"

I shrugged. "There wasn't anything juicy okay? He gave a parrot and apologized, so we made up, it's not a big deal I was overreacting anyway."

"He gave you a parrot?"

"A stuffed parrot."

"Really? A stuffed parrot? He couldn't do better than that?" Ruffnut scoffed.

I crossed my arms. "What's wrong with that? I like parrots."

"Since when?"

"Since forever." I said as we walked over to the guys. "So what did you get for Snoggletog, Fishlegs?

He rummaged through his things. "A lot of really ugly sweaters, some fruit cake, a few mugs and this." He pulled out a small rock-shaped gadget, on the tiny screen there was a small pixelated pitbull. "Meet my digital pet, meatlug. My mom got me this since I'm allergic to most animals."

"He's cute." I said grinning.

"He's a she, actually." He corrected. "I heard females were more affectionate." Fishlegs glanced from me to Astrid and then back. "You guys aren't still...?"

"No, we're good Fish." Hiccup said shooting me a smile.

Fishlegs sighed and smiled. "Phew, I'm glad."

"Guys, check it out!" Tuffnut cried out. "There is no freaking way!" We all turned to look at Tuffnut, and we saw him staring and pointing towards the road where Snotlout was driving in a new shiny red chopper. My jaw nearly hit the floor, Snotlout noticed our staring and he began hooting and hollering at us as he rolled up into the parking lot toward us. "Dude, you did not." Tuff said running up to the bike.

Snot hopped off of the bike. "You better believe it baby." He rubbed the side of the motorcycle which had the word 'Hookfang' painted on the side. "My dad gave him to me for Snoggletog plus my birthday, combo gift man."

"It was your birthday?"

"Yeah, five days before Snoggletog." Snotlout wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Sorry you missed it babe, you wanna take a ride?" He said gesturing towards his motorbike.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks but no thanks."

"Hey, can we have our reunion not in a parking lot?" Ruffnut called out at us from her van.

We all began helping load everyone's things back into their rooms.

* * *

><p>Everyone had returned from vacation and the dorms were suddenly back to life again. After two weeks of quiet, the bustling atmosphere that returned felt a little strange, and also a little refreshing but I still missed it just being me and Astrid. Now that everyone was back and I had to keep what was going on with us on the down low, I didn't get to talk to her nearly as much as I did during winter break. I knew I had to talk to Snotlout or we would be in hiding forever, but every time I built up the courage to break it to him I would chicken out at the last moment.<p>

"What's up with you lately man?"

"Huh?"

"You're acting all fidgety, well, more fidgety." Snotlout said to me without looking up from his phone.

My eyes trailed away from him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh come on." He put his phone down. "Don't give me that shit."

I began to squirm. "Alright, it's, uh, about Astrid. I don't think I can help you with her."

"Hey, I know you're not the best with the ladies, but you know Astrid well." Snotlout said giving me a slap on the back. "Don't sell yourself short."

"That's not really-"

"You're not still fighting are you?"

"No." I said sighing. "That's not the problem."

He turned towards me and rose an eyebrow at me. "So what's the problem then?"

"She's just, not really into to you like that, you know?"

Snotlout frowned. "How do you know that? Did you talk to her about me?"

"Not...exactly."

"What's not to be into?" He said furrowing his eyebrows.

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. "Well, uh, let's just say, you're not exactly her type."

"You know what her type is?" He asked perking up. "You've got to tell me what it is."

I winced. "Not really, it's mostly speculation."

"Don't hold out on me now man, you've got to tell me."

"Well,"

"I won't tell her it was you."

"It's just-"

"Come on, just a favor, man to man."

To say I was a coward would be an incredible understatement, I regretted not telling him the truth, but the next day I regretted a lot more than that. What I had told Snotlout in an attempt to discourage him had had the opposite affect unfortunately. The very next morning he strolled out of his room in platform shoes. clothes two sizes too small while holding a stack of comic books.

"What the hell happened to him?" Fishlegs muttered under his breath. "He looks like an idiot."

"Oh no."

Fish turned to look at me. "What?"

"I think this is my fault."

Snotlout strolled down the hall and knocked on Astrid's door and as soon as she saw him her head immediately snapped to glare at me from down the hall. "Hey, Astrid, you want to read a comic book or something." He winked at her as he gestured towards the comics he was holding.

"Sorry Snotlout, I've got plans today."

"All day?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Yeah well, someone has a lot of explaining to do."


	15. Chapter 15

**I think this is the first chapter I've written where I don't really have anything to write in the author's note.**

**So without further adieu, chapter fifteen, I hope you enjoy and please review! :D **

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><p>"What the hell did you do?!"<p>

I waved my arms around dramatically. "Why is it automatically my fault?"

Astrid narrowed her eyes at me. "Is it?"

"...Yeah, it's my fault."

She growled in frustration. "I thought you were going to tell him? What happened to that?"

"I thought maybe I could get him to give up on you." I said sighing. "You know, lessen the blow."

"Tell me what you said to him Hiccup."

I scratched the back of my head. "I told him you didn't like short guys."

"Well that explains the shoes."

"That didn't really seem to bother him so I said you were into the skinny nerdy type." I laughed awkwardly. "I figured if that didn't discourage him, then at the very least it would hint at...you know, me. Us."

"If you were going to imply it, why didn't you just go ahead and tell him flat out?" She said crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry, I chickened out okay?" I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I just wanted him to give up first, so it wouldn't be weird."

"Hiccup, he's wearing platform shoes, it's already weird." Astrid said shaking her head. "My guess is, it's going to take a hell of a lot more to make him give up...maybe I should just tell him."

"No!" The door to the stairwell slammed opened and we shuffled out of the way as a few people passed us. "No...I'll do it, he should hear it from me."

"Well you need to hurry up and do it before he ruins his chance of ever getting a girlfriend. Or worse, before he hurts himself on those stupid shoes." Astrid sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, you know if you don't think you can tell him, there's no shame in letting me do it right?"

I grinned at her. "Don't worry I can handle it."

"Alright." She said skeptically. "Just don't give him anymore ideas okay?"

"I got this."

She nodded. "Right, well I've got to go, see you later?"

I smiled. "Definatly."

Astrid took off down the stairs and I returned to my room where Fishlegs was waiting. As I entered he quickly spun around in his desk chair while petting Toothless in an exaggerated manner.

"I've been expecting you." He cooed.

"Hilarious." I said sarcastically before falling face first onto my bed.

Fishlegs wheeled his chair over to me. "What's up with you two? I thought you made up."

"We did."

"Then what's going on?"

I flopped over. "I can't really talk about it."

"You guys keeping secrets all of a sudden?"

I reached over to where Toothless was resting on Fish's knee and scratched behind his ears. "It's kind of complicated, I told Astrid she couldn't tell Ruffnut so it's not really fair to her if I tell you. Anyway, it's not a big deal, I just have to get it over with."

"It doesn't have to do with Snotlout does it?"

I quickly turned to look at Fashlegs. "How did you know?"

"I'm not blind, I saw both of your faces when Snotlout walked out of his room this morning." He said. "Then you said it was your fault and ran off to talk to Astrid."

I sat up on the bed. "I was trying to convince him to give up on her, let's just say he didn't exactly take it the way I wanted him too."

"Hah, I don't doubt it."

"What do you think I should do?"

"Just let him." Fishlegs said leaning back in his chair. "It's not like Astrid will ever go out with him, so just let him fawn over her."

"...I can't"

He gave me a quizzical expression. "What's the big deal? Are you jealous or something?"

"No, it's-" I groaned in frustration. "He just sort of decided that I was going to help him get with her, and I can't, for obvious reasons. I want to tell him the truth, but I don't want him to freak out about it."

Fishlegs shrugged. "Astrid's popular, Snotlout knows that. Don't worry Hiccup, he's a big boy, I'm sure he can deal with the fact that you have a crush on her."

"But he probably can't deal with the fact that she likes me back."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Shit," I flopped back down and covered my face. "Forget it."

Fish leaned forward and pried my hands from my face. "Oh no, it's too late for that." He grinned at me. "Did something happen during the break? Did you confess?"

"Maaaybee…"

"Dude!" He flung his arms into the air. "That's awesome!"

I averted my eyes bashfully. "Yeah, well, I still have to deal with Snotlout. With him around we can't really do much."

"You just need to find him another chick to have the hots for." Fish suggested.

I sprung up and turned around. "That's a great idea, why didn't I think of that? You're a freaking genius Fish."

"I try." He snorted putting Toothless on the floor.

"Who do you think he would go for?"

"Honestly, I don't think it really matters, as long as she's attractive."

My eyes wandered the room thoughtfully. "You think so?"

"Sure." He said nonchalantly. "Just tell Snotlout some girl is into him and I bet you he'll pounce. Even if she totally hates him, Snot will be too blockheaded to realize it. Badda-boom badda-bing, problem solved"

"Where is he?"

"Who? Snotlout?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"What, are you going to do it right now?"

"The sooner I get this done, the better."

Fishlegs shrugged. "Not sure, some party I think? You should probably ask Tuffnut, he would know."

I grabbed my bag and coat. "Thanks Fish, this might actually work." I opened the door to leave. "And I even think I have the perfect girl for him."

* * *

><p>"Hey, you hear? There's a mixer for the students starting this semester." Ruffnut said looking over her shoulder at me. "We should go, might be some cute guys going."<p>

I looked up at her from behind my laptop. "Nah, I'm not really interested."

"Not interested in the mixer or not interested in cute guys?"

I chuckled a little. "Both."

Ruff frowned at me. "Are you kidding me? We're young single women, we should be out and about, going to parties, we should have boyfriends." She growled in frustration. "You never want to do anything anymore."

"Relax." I said. "I told you I wasn't interested in pursuing guys, I'm just going to let things happen how they're going to happen."

"Please, you don't need to pursue any guys, Astrid. Believe me when I say, with that face, guys will do all the pursuing for you, you just need to show up."

I sighed. "Look, I don't really want to be pursued either, okay? I'm happy where I am, I don't feel the need to go out and get a boyfriend."

Ruff's face had seemed to become a mixture of disgust and disbelief. "You're only eighteen and you've already given up? You're just not interested in guys anymore?"

"I didn't say that."

"Whatever, some people are still looking for a boyfriend, so could you just come with me? For moral support?" She asked turning her chair around so she could face me properly.

I lowered my screen. "Why do you even need to go to a mixer anyway? This dorm is like, eighty percent guys, and the gym is like sixty percent guys."

"I'm picky okay?" She said slouching in her chair. "I'm not into boys, I'm into men."

I rose an eyebrow at her. "And you think you're going to find one at a mixer for freshmen?"

"Everybody knows that all the mature students start in the middle of the year."

"I've never heard that"

Ruffnut huffed at me. "Will you just come with me? Going to mixers by yourself is so lame."

"Alright, alright." I said shutting my laptop. "What are friends for?"

She smiled at me and grabbed her bag. "Cool, I'll meet you downstairs." Ruff said before exiting the room and stamping down the stairs.

I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Hiccup; _ruff dragging me to a mixer dont wait up, txt me if somthing happens_. I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and pulled on my coat before leaving and locking the door. I walked outside to where Ruffnut was waiting. "Let's go." She nodded in response and we started walking out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk. "Where is this mixer anyway?"

"In one of the art buildings." Ruff said pointing forward. "I heard a bunch of people talking about it as I was leaving class."

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I yanked it out, Hiccup left a reply;_ working on it right now_. Ruffnut leered over my shoulder. "Working on it right now? What are you and Hiccup up to?"

I moved my phone away and glared at Ruff. "Hey, don't just read my texts."

"Well? What are you up to?"

I scowled and started walking faster. "I don't have to tell you anything, Ms. Nosy."

"Ooooh, keeping secrets are we?"

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, sure I am." I said sarcastically.

Ruffnut kept her eyes glued to me with a big fat smirk plastered across her face. "Come on, just tell me, is something going on with you and Hiccup? I won't tell anyone."

"Just like how you didn't tell anyone about my plans to hook Hiccup and Heather up?"

"You're mad about that?" Ruff huffed. "You never told me to keep that a secret."

I shook my head. "I didn't think I had to, I thought it was kind of obvious."

"It was just Tuffnut."

"Only, Tuffnut told Snotlout and Snotlout told Hiccup, why do you think we got into that big fight before Snoggletog? Because of what you told Tuff."

"That's why you were fighting? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Ruffnut sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I never thought Tuffnut would tell anyone. From now on I'll ask you before I say anything okay?"

I stayed silent for a moment. "...I guess."

"This time I'm swearing I won't spill." Ruffnut held out her pinky finger.

I scoffed. "Are we in the third grade?"

"Just shake."

I grinned and shook my head as I grabbed her pinky with my own. "There, happy?"

"Not until you tell me what was up with that text."

I shrugged. "It's not a big deal."

Ruffnut grabbed my arm. "Just tell me, I'm dying here."

"I'll tell you as soon as I can, but it's not exactly my secret to tell, you know?"

We walked into the building and down the hall towards the sound of chattering people. "So it's Hiccup's secret…?"

"I never said that." I looked around at all the people at the party as we entered the room. "Didn't you want to look for a guy?"

"Don't try change the subject." Ruff said narrowing her eyes at me. Suddenly a mischievous smile spread across her face. "...or maybe I could just ask him myself."

My head snapped around to look where Ruffnut was staring and there I saw Hiccup and Snotlout talking in the far corner of the room. "Hiccup…?" Ruff started walking towards them and I quickly grabbed her arm. "Stop, are you seriously going to ask him?"

"That text is going to keep me up all night."

I growled. "Then you shouldn't have looked in the first place." I glanced over to where Snotlout and Hiccup were. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you can't say anything to anyone. Pinky swear right?" She nodded. "Hiccup...confessed to me."

"What? That's it?"

"I also sort of…"

"No. No you didn't"

"...I did."

"What, like as a sick joke or something?"

"No, I actually really like him Ruff, so don't be an asshole about it."

"Oh please, I wouldn't do that." I stared at her. "Alright, alright, I'll play nice. You going to tell me what 'working on it now' has to do with this?"

"He's trying to deal with Snotlout, apparently Snot thinks Hiccup's helping him get with me."

Ruffnut chuckled to herself. "Classic Snotlout."

"How do you think he'll take it?"

"He'll be fine." Ruffnut said flopping her hand around lazily. "He's as dense as they come, but he isn't the type to go after someone who's taken."

* * *

><p>"How do you know?"<p>

"She, uh, told me."

"Really?" Snotlout grinned, clearly pleased with himself. "I was sort of interested in her, Astrid won't be upset will she?"

"She'll be fine, I'm sure of it." I replied patting him on the back. "So, you don't have to wear this new getup, she likes you just the way you are."

"That's great, because these pants were starting to seriously ride up my but."

I handed a piece of paper to Snotlout. "I got you her number, but, you can't tell her it was from me okay? She's kind of embarrassed about it, I wasn't supposed say anything to you."

"No problem man, I'm the master of discretion."

I smiled at him. "Good luck."

He nodded back at me. "Thanks for the tip Hiccup."

I pulled my phone out and sent another text to Astrid; _Mission accomplished_.


	16. Chapter 16

**Phew! I finally got it out, it looks like I can't use the copy-n-paste anymore, it just flat out doesn't work for some reason, which is really inconvenient because I don't have office or word or anything like that. (I use googledoc) I hope I can get it working in the future but for now I've figured out how to upload chapters.**

**I'm sorry for the delay, I left a message on my profile when I couldn't upload, so if something like this happens again I will leave an explanation again, make sure to check there if I miss an update.**

**Whelp, I hope you enjoy and please review!**

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><p>Getting Snotlout to move on to a different girl was much easier than I had expected, I didn't even have to coax him, he took my word for it right away. It took me only fifteen minutes to get him completely on board, and I left the party with a big smile across my face. As I walked down the street I could hear the sound of running footsteps quickly moving towards me. "Hiccup!"<p>

I turned just in time for Astrid to come crashing into me. "Whoa, where did you come from?"

"I came from the party, I didn't want to interrupt you and Snotlout, but the next thing I knew you were gone." She snickered at me. "Mission accomplished, huh?"

"Shut up." I said smiling.

"How did he take it?"

"I didn't tell him yet."

Astrid's smile immediately dropped. "What? What happened to mission accomplished?"

"Don't worry, I got him to start chasing after another girl."

She sighed. "Hiccup, I thought I told you not to give him any more ideas."

"Hey, at least he's off of your back now, you should be thanking me." I said jokingly.

Astrid smiled and rolled her eyes. "My hero."

"And now that everything's been settled, we can announce it to everyone at once."

She snickered again. "Announce? Are we getting engaged?"

I nudged her in the arm. "Tell, inform, whatever, you get the idea. Dawn of the Dragon Racers is on tomorrow night, so we can do it then."

She nodded. "Sure, so...what do you think we should say?"

"I have no idea." I said shifting my eyes away from her. "I mean, do we even know what we are?"

Astrid shrugged. "Boyfriend and girlfriend?"

I immediately felt my face heat up and butterflies in my stomach. "Is that what we are?"

"Is that what you want us to be?"

I looked up and my eyes caught her gaze. Somehow even though I knew our feelings were mutual I still felt jittery talking about it, part of me wanted to avoid talking about it, but all of me wanted to be Astrid's boyfriend, public or not. "Yeah, I do."

Her lips slowly curved into a smile. "Then I guess that's what we are." Astrid glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the party. "I better get back before Ruffnut thinks I ditched her." Before turning to leave Astrid grabbed my shoulder and placed a quick kiss on my cheek. "See you later, boyfriend."

I probably stood there for a good minute holding my cheek like an idiot. My luck astounded me, and for once in my life it astounded me for how good it was not how bad it was. I knew it was just a silly superficial title, it didn't really mean anything, but that silly title made me too happy to sleep. I felt the same feeling of butterflies in my stomach, but instead of making me want to puke this time it make me want to squeal like a little girl. And I probably would have too, if Fishlegs wasn't sleeping just across the room. I didn't even care what the guys thought anymore, all that worrying I did about what Snotlout would think suddenly seemed so irrelevant, I was Astrid's boyfriend, I was Astrid's boyfriend, I was Astrid's boyfriend. I just couldn't stop repeating it in my head. I couldn't stop thinking about it, I didn't want to stop thinking about it. Astrid was my girlfriend, and it felt good.

"You want to say it or should I?" Astrid whispered to me as everyone gathered in my room to watch Dawn of the Dragon Racers. "I'm fine with doing it."

I looked around the room. "...Maybe you should, public speaking makes me nauseated." Astrid held in a laugh. "It's hardly public speaking, there are four people."

"You know what I mean."

She nodded and turned towards everyone. "Hey, guys, before we start I want to say something." They all turned to look at her. "Just letting you all know, Hiccup and I have starting going out."

"Congrats" Ruffnut said nonchalantly before returning to her bowl of popcorn.

Tuffnut nearly choked on his popcorn and quickly turned to stare at us. "Really? No joke?" We both looked at one another then turned back to Tuff and nodded. "Since when?"

"Yesterday, I guess."

Fishlegs said nothing, and Snotlout only shot me a puzzled expression.

I chuckled a little to myself. "I'll admit it, I was expecting a bigger reaction. Talk about anticlimactic." I turned to Astrid. "...You told Ruffnut didn't you."

"Yup." She said with a sigh. "And I'm guessing you told Fishlegs?"

"Sure did." We both laughed a little at how completely terrible we both were at keeping it a secret. "Let's just be glad it's out and we don't have to worry about keeping it from them anymore."

Astrid nodded and walked over to Ruffnut to find a seat. Snotlout approached me as soon as she left. "Hey, man, that whole thing from last night, was that because of…"

"Sort of, I didn't know how you'd react, I was worried you'd be angry."

He gave a slap on the back. "No hard feelings man. Besides, you don't have to worry about me, with this face, I'll have no trouble finding someone, you on the other hand, you need to hold on to who you've got."

I chuckled. "Well, that was almost endearing."

"Good luck, dude."

"Thanks."

* * *

><p>"So I guess it's official now." Ruffnut said looking over at me from her treadmill. "Your boyfriend is a nerd, I suppose I can't complain, I was the one bugging you to get one in the first place, but I didn't think you'd settle for Hiccup."<p>

I turned up the speed up on my treadmill. "I didn't settle, I like him. You just don't understand because you're so shallow."

"Oooh, burn." Ruff said sarcastically. "There's nothing wrong with wanting someone attractive, and I happen to have a very particular taste in men. I'm just saying, Hiccup is definitely not your type."

"And how would you know what my type is?"

She took a swig from her water bottle. "I would know because I've met your first two boyfriends, and they were both athletic and one hundred percent not nerds."

"It's not like I had the option to date a nerd, in high school everyone I knew was a jock." I took a few deep breaths of much needed air. "I don't know if I have a 'type' but who knows, maybe it is Hiccup."

Ruffnut abruptly stopped her treadmill and turned to stare at me. "Are you kidding? You have to find him attractive for him to constitute as your type." I stayed silent and continued running. "You can't be serious, you actually find him attractive?"

"You prefer bulky guys Ruff, so you don't get it."

She crossed her arms "You're right, I don't get it."

"I just prefer taller, leaner guys, that's all." I stopped my treadmill and turned towards her. "You don't have to worry about my love life Ruff, I can handle it, just go and find your own boyfriend."

Ruffnut scoffed. "If only it were that easy."

"You've found yourself boyfriends before, you'll find one again."

"Sure, raging assholes." She scowled at me. "Tell me Astrid, why do I always go for the biggest asshole I can get my hands on?"

I shrugged. "That's your type?" We both started laughing, and Ruffnut whacked me on the shoulder. "Ow! Don't hit."

"Don't hit? I hit you all the time."

I rolled up my sleeve to inspect my shoulder. "Yeah, but I've got a bruise there."

"Another one? Jeez, you're such a klutz. How are you such a good athlete when you hurt yourself so often." Ruffnut grabbed a towel and wiped her forehead. "You don't even play rough sports."

I pulled my sleeve back down. "Well, I've got a swim meet coming up, so I'll see you later okay?"

She nodded. "Just don't kill yourself from working out too much"

"Yeah, yeah." I said laughing, before grabbing my bag and heading out the door. As I exited the gym I noticed Fishlegs walking down the sidewalk. "Hey, Fishlegs." I ran over to him. "Fancy meeting you here."

He smiled at me. "Leaving the gym?" I nodded. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention something to you but I never got the chance, Hiccup's birthday, it's on February twenty ninth. It's coming up so thought you'd like to know, maybe we could surprise him."

"Yeah, I think that would be awesome."

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><p>I tapped my foot anxiously as I rode up the elevator to the top floor. I stood in the corner thinking of the best way to phrase my words, barely noticing as people entered and exited the elevator. Once I reached the top I quickly made my way down the hall, keeping my head low to avoid any unnecessary catching up I might have to do if someone recognized me. I got to the end of the hall, and rushed into the office shutting the door behind me.<p>

"Hiccup, visiting your father?" Gobber said glancing up at me from his desk while continuing to type away on his keyboard.

"No, I came to see you." I said trying to hold back my smile. "I, uh...do you remember Astrid?"

"I remember talking about Astrid, why?"

I started grinning like an idiot. "She's my girlfriend."

Gobber suddenly stopped typing and looked over at me, slack jawed. "Really? I thought you said she didn't like you like that."

"I guess I was wrong."

He turned his chair a bit to face me better. "Congratulations! That's great Hiccup, you've really become Mr. popular, when did you two start going out? Recently?"

I sat in one of the chair's across from him. "For about...two and a half weeks…? Give or take."

"You need advice? Is that why you visited?" He asked.

I shifted my eyes bashfully. "No, I just, I just want to tell everyone, you know? It makes me sound like such a geek but I can't stop talking about it, I feel the need to let everyone know." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Is this normal or am I just a complete weirdo?"

Gobber laughed. "Don't worry Hiccup, puppy love makes everyone act like weirdos, it's not just you."

I scowled. "Don't call it puppy love, that makes it sound like it won't last."

"Alright, alright." He said holding his hands up defensively. "Did you tell your father about it? I'm sure he'd love to know about your new girlfriend."

"Yeah, sure he would."

"I'm serious, he might be, well, Stoick at times, but he really worries about you." Gobber sighed. "You know, when I told him that you'd made friends at school he was really relieved, you ought to tell him more things, I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

I looked away and frowned. "Yeah right, he never listens to anything I say, and if he really cared he'd try a little harder to talk to me."

"Hiccup-"

"Don't tell him about Astrid okay? I'll tell him eventually, at the right time." I said turning back to Gobber. "If you tell him now he might want to meet her, gods that would be awkward."

He chuckled. "I suppose so"

"So…?"

"Yeah, yeah, I won't tell him anything." He grinned at me. "Your birthday is coming soon, you going to do anything this year? It's a leap year, so you can actually celebrate on the day."

I shrugged. "Whatever, I don't usually celebrate, maybe I'll eat a piece of cake or something."

Gobber bent over and pulled out a rectangular gift box from under his desk. "Sort of a Snoggletog slash birthday present, since I didn't know when I get to see you." I took the box from him and started unwrapping. "You can return it if you want, I just figured you've been growing a lot, so, you know."

I looked down into the box. "Thanks Gobber, I like it."

"It's adjustable." He said. "I know you and your dad aren't the closest, but you know you can come to me for anything right?"

I nodded. "I know. Thanks."

* * *

><p>"Okay guys," I started, crossing my arms. "We are going to plan the best, nerdiest party Hiccup's ever been to, and we've got to start by delegating tasks. What do you guys think you can do?"<p>

Tuffnut put his hand up "I can handle getting the snacks."

"I know a great place that sells really great geeky party games." Fishlegs suggested. "I could find a few that Hiccup would like for the party."

"There are some party decorations I could steal from the art building." Ruffnut said. "By the looks of it, nobody has touched them in years."

I nodded. "Alright, sounds good. I'll get the cake, Snotlout can you handle distracting Hiccup while we're setting up?" I said turning to Snot.

"You know it, baby."

"Okay, everyone be sure to get your gifts by the end of the week, Fishlegs, you can hide your gift with me so he won't find it." I looked over at Tuff and Ruff. "I'll make sure to order the cake in advance, you two need to finish your task by at least the day before." They both nodded. "Snotlout, on the big day you need to get him out of the house as early as possible, okay?"

Snotlout gave me a thumbs up. "Gotcha."

"Perfect."


	17. Chapter 17

**Really sorry for the delay AGAIN, I had a bunch of difficulties with the website and with my own computer. I'm preparing to go to school soon so it took me longer than it normally would have to get everything done. I was originally just going to post this on Sunday but I figured since I can I may aswell post today, so here you go, a long fluffy chapter for you. (I think this is actually my longest chapter so far!)**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>"Let's go out."<p>

I looked up from my laptop to find Snotlout hovering over me, a smile across his face, and a mischievous gleam in his eye. His sudden suggestion was odd and concerning, Snotlout and I were on good terms, I would even go as far to say that we were friends. We would play games together, watch movies or tv shows together, but he never wanted to go out, that was an activity reserved for his jock friends, not me, never me. The date came to mind, it was my birthday after all, but the only one who knew was Fishlegs, and I didn't think it was likely he would tell Snotlout about it. I mean, we already had plans to have a movie marathon after he came back from his usual trip to the library. "And do what?"

"Everyone's busy, I need a spotter."

"I didn't think you'd need a spotter."

Snotlout puffed up his chest. "Well, not normally, but I felt a twinge in my wrist this morning, safety first right?"

I wouldn't consider myself particularly perceptive, but I could tell there was something off about the situation. 'Safety first' was not something I had ever expected to hear Snotlout say. "I, uhm, I'm not sure, gimme a second, I need ask Astrid something first."

"That's cool, I'll be in my room." He said moseying back across the hall.

I stuffed my phone into my pocket before walking down the hall and knocking on Astrid's door. There was silence, so I knocked again and this time I heard some rustling and Ruffnut lazily answered the door, hair a mess, and a dopey expression on her face. "Yeah?"

"Sorry, I need to talk to Astrid." She shuffled out of the way and I peered in and saw Astrid pulling her head out from underneath her covers. "You're still sleeping?" I asked looking at my watch. "It's already past ten."

She brushed her bangs away from her face. "I can sleep in once in a while."

"I know you can, I just didn't think you did, you usually work out all morning."

Astrid slowly sat up, still holding the covers over herself. "Do you need something?"

I glanced over at Ruffnut who had gone back to sleep. "Do you...know what day it is?"

"Sunday?"

"Fishlegs didn't say anything to you?"

She gave me a quizzical expression. "You're going to need to be more specific."

I shook my head. "Nevermind, sorry for waking you up." I shut the door behind me and sighed. Maybe I was thinking too much into it, Snotlout was always full of surprises and today was probably just one of them. I slowly walked down the hall and knocked on Snotlout's door, it took him a moment to answer.

"Dude! You did not tell me!" He shouted with open arms and a dumb grin. "We have to celebrate now, what do you want to do? I'll treat you, anywhere you want to go."

"What are you-"

He gave my shoulder a hard slap. "Your birthday man, don't try and hide it."

"How did you know?"

"Fishlegs just texted me, you should've told me earlier, we could've made plans." He glanced at his phone. "I've got a great app for finding places to eat."

"No, it's really-"

"Or maybe we could go clubbing, I know a bunch of awesome clubs around here."

I sighed. "On second thought, let's go out to eat."

"Cool." Snotlout grinned at me as he shut his door behind him. "What are you hungry for? Italian? Chinese? Mexican? A good old fashioned burger?"

I shrugged as we walked down the hall. "I don't really care, you can pick."

"Don't be like that man, it's your birthday."

* * *

><p>I drummed my fingers impatiently on my desk as I listened to the dial tone on my phone. As I waited I glanced over at my laptop, it was fifteen minutes after ten. Finally the tone was interrupted by Snotlout's gruff, tired voice. "What's up?"<p>

"What's up?" I hissed. "What's up is that's it's past ten and you're still sleeping, did the date escape you yesterday when you were setting your alarm?"

"I don't have an alarm."

I growled in frustration. "Just get up Snotlout, you need to get Hiccup out of the building remember? His birthday?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got this." I could hear his covers rustling on the other end of the line. "Alright, I'm going now." He hung up the phone and I immediately rushed to the door and opened it a crack to peer out into the hall. Ruffnut looked out above me, and we watched as Snotlout walked across the hall to Hiccup's room and knocked on the door.

"Let's go out." He said nonchalantly as the door opened.

There was an awkward silence before Hiccup replied. "And do what?"

"Everyone's busy, I need a spotter."

"I didn't think you'd need a spotter."

Snotlout puffed up his chest. "Well, not normally, but I felt a twinge in my wrist this morning, safety first right?"

I cursed under my breath. Snotlout was terrible at coming up with excuses, and I felt an awful feeling of regret boiling in the pit of my stomach. I should've made sure that he was capable of getting him out of the dorm without rousing any suspicion.

"I, uhm, I'm not sure, gimme a second, I need ask Astrid something first."

My eyes widened and I quickly shut the door. Ruffnut and I both looked at one another, she was still wearing her pajamas, I however, had gone to the gym already and was fully dressed in my workout clothes. I jumped onto my bed and pulled the covers over my body. "What are you doing?" Ruff whispered frantically.

"We've got to pretend like nothing is going on, act like you just woke you up."

"What?" There was a knock at our door, and Ruffnut waved her arms around and attempted mouthing words at me in a panic. I motioned for her to mess up her own hair, she glared at me but eventually complied when there was another knock. I pulled the covers over my head before Ruffnut answered the door.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry, I need to talk to Astrid." She shuffled out of the way and I pulled my head out from underneath the covers. "You're still sleeping?" He asked looking at his watch. "It's already past ten."

"I can sleep in once in a while."

"I know you can, I just didn't think you did, you usually work out all morning."

I slowly sat up, being sure to hold the covers over my clothes. "Do you need something?"

"Do you...know what day it is?" I felt like cursing, he was already suspicious and Snot had only spoken to him for a few minutes.

"Sunday?"

"Fishlegs didn't say anything to you?"

I gave my best confused look. "You're going to need to be more specific."

Hiccup shook his head. "Nevermind, sorry for waking you up."

As soon as he left I whipped out my phone and began texting Snotlout. Ruffnut got up and looked over my shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Giving that idiot some instructions." I said sighing. "Maybe if Snotlout pretends to take Hiccup out for his birthday he'll be less suspicious that we're planning something."

She chuckled. "Diabolical." Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she yanked it out. "Tuff and Fishlegs have the snacks and they just picked up the cake."

I nodded, starting another text. "Right, I'll make sure Snotlout takes Hiccup in the opposite direction, you can tell them to start coming back." After I pressed the send button I started changing my clothes. "Get changed, we're going to start setting up as soon as they leave."

"Where's the key Fishlegs gave you?"

I nodded my head towards my desk. "In the left drawer." I could hear their footsteps pass our room and the stairwell door slam as they exited the hall. Ruffnut handed me the key and I knelt down and pulled out the presents and decorations from under my bed. I tossed my phone into the box and picked it up. "I'm going to start, meet me there."

"Sure." Ruffnut said pulling her top over her head.

I opened the door and placed the box onto Hiccup's bed. I couldn't help but feel pleased with myself, and a wide smile appeared on my face. I pulled out the gifts and placed them aside, and began rummaging through the decorations. As I searched the box Toothless poked out from underneath the bed and started rubbing up against my leg. "Hey there." I cooed, taking him into my arms. I grabbed one of the kid-sized party hats and placed it onto his little head, it barely fit, and the hat made him look like a wizard.

Ruffnut walked in and cracked up at the sight. "Oh you've got to leave him like that. It's too much."

I laughed. "Alright, the hat stays." I let Toothless down and he walked over to Ruff and began sniffing and pawing at her.

"What's his name again?"

"Toothless."

"He has teeth though."

"Yup."

She smirked and shook her head. "You sure know how to pick 'em"

I nudged her. "Yeah, alright, just get decorating. I'm going to start blowing up some balloons."

"Right, there were some really great decorations in here if I remember correctly." She said digging through the box. "Aha, here we are."

I looked over at her. "What is it?"

"I'm pretty sure most of these were stolen from a ten-year-old boy's party, but luckily that works in our favour." Ruff held up a 'happy birthday' banner covered in dragons and grinned at me. "Am I right? Pretty lucky."

"No way." I said laughing. "That's awesome."

I looked at the time on my phone. "No time to pat ourselves on the back, we need to hustle, I'm not confident that Snotlout will be able to distract Hiccup for long."

* * *

><p>"Why did we go to this location? There's one way closer in the opposite direction." I asked sighing. "It's bigger too."<p>

"I think it's under construction."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "No it's not, I was there like, two days ago."

Snotlout put a hand on my shoulder. "My man, you just need to trust."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I crossed my arms. "Okay, something is definitely up with you, does it have to do with my birthday?"

He chuckled. "Duh, why do you think we're here?"

"No, not about going out, I meant just- you're acting really weird."

He sighed. "Dude, I'm just trying to do something nice for your birthday, is that so weird?"

"You're totally planning something." I turned to leave. "I'm going back to the dorms."

"Wait-" Snotlout grabbed my arm. "Alright, if you must know- I'm just feeling…uh, weird you know about, uhm, like, that's...it's kinda hard to put into words, or hard to say, you know what I mean?"

"No."

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and continued spouting nonsense. "I really can't say man, it's difficult, and I'm feeling weird that's all...right? So, I'm sorry, you know, uh…about everything..."

"Is this about me and Astrid?" I asked.

He snapped his head up to look at me. "Yes! I'm feeling weird because of you and Astrid. That's why I'm acting so off. I'm trying to act cool, like it doesn't bother me. It's hard, that's all."

"You should've told me sooner, I wouldn't have been angry."

Snotlout cleared his throat. "I was just embarrassed dude, can't you relate?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess I can."

"I didn't want it to bother you guys, you know, that wouldn't have been cool at all. I mean it's my problem after all, not something I should worry you about. We're friends, I didn't want it to be weird for you either."

I gave him a pat on the back. "It wouldn't have been weird, you should just tell me next time, _because_ we're friends. So don't even worry about it."

Snotlout looked at his phone then back up at me. "Let's go back, we don't have to go out to celebrate, right?"

I nodded. "Sure."

We walked back to the dorms, and I started to think that maybe I should've told everyone. I should've told Astrid. For so long I never really had anyone to do stuff with on my birthday, and now that I finally did I guess I had forgotten about the whole thing. I decided that once we got back I would invite all the guys over to celebrate, I wasn't planning to waste this birthday just because all my previous ones had sucked. I had friends now, awesome friends. I pulled my keys out and opened the door to my room.

"SUPRISE!"

I dropped my keys and nearly fell onto the floor. The room had been decorated top to bottom with balloons, streamers, dragons, banners, everyone was wearing little paper party hats, even Toothless. "Oh my gods." I turned to Snotlout and stomped my foot. "I knew you were planning something!"

He laughed. "I got you in the end though didn't I?"

"And that heart-to-heart we had?"

"Total bullshit."

I laughed loudly, clutching my stomach. "Oh man, I should've known, and here I was thinking I might've lost my chance by not telling you guys." I looked around the room, grinning at everyone. "Thanks."

Astrid took my arm and pulled me into the room. "Don't thank us yet, you haven't even seen what we planned for you yet."

"Yeah, we got a few of your favourite movies, a roleplaying game planned, the works." Tuffnut said pointing to various spots in the room that had been set up. "We can get to that later though, open your gifts first."

"You got me presents?"

Ruffnut scoffed. "Of course, it's not a birthday party without presents."

Fish handed me a wrapped box and smiled. "Happy birthday, I think you'll like it, you've been talking about it for weeks."

I ripped off the wrapping paper and revealed the brand new Islands and Dragons book, with a set of dice and a map to go with it. "This is awesome Fish, are we going to use this to play later?"

"If you want to."

"Thanks man."

Astrid handed me a paper envelope. "Happy birthday Hiccup."

I wasn't sure what to make of it, I couldn't think of anything Astrid would give me that fit into an envelope. I took it and eyed her. "What's this?"

She smiled. "Open it."

It was definitely paper, I felt anxious as I slowly ripped it open. Inside was a few sheets of folded slightly worn paper with signatures scrawled on the back and front. I furrowed my brows and looked over at Astrid. "A petition?"

She nodded. "To allow pets in the dorm, everyone living in the building has signed. Well, almost everyone." She said pulling out a pen. "It still needs one more, then I can send it to the dean."

"Are you serious?" I groaned. "You're making my Snoggletog gift look sooo lame."

She laughed. "I know, I'm awesome."

I took the pen and signed in one of the bottom spots before returning the petition and pen back to Astrid. As she leaned forward to take it she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. Ruffnut made a gagging motion.

Snotlout dropped a heavy stack of comics in my lap. "Happy birthday, dude."

"Whoa, this is a lot." I said skimming through the pile. "You picked out some really good ones, did you find these on your own?"

"Yeah…no."

Fishlegs gave Snot a pat on the back. "I helped him out, but he did try."

I laughed. "Well it's the thought that counts anyways, thanks for all the comics Snot."

"Alright, it's our turn." Tuffnut said waving his hands around. "Ruff and I have something really cool for all of us to do together."

"Oooh, an activity?" I asked.

Ruffnut nodded. "Yeah, our grandad is friends with some guy who owns a bunch of rental cottages around the lake. He's totally hooking us up with one for a week, we can go during march break, it'll be so much fun."

"We can go swimming, campfires, and lucky for us it looks like the weather is going to be perfect that week." Tuffnut exclaimed with a wide smile. "It's going to rock."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." I said. "Thanks guys, this is probably the best birthday I've ever had." I was uncertain about the trip to the lake, but everything else had been so perfect and everybody seemed so gung ho about the idea that I didn't want to be the person to spoil the fun. Besides, even if swimming and campfires wasn't my thing I would be with my friends, they had endured a night of roleplaying games and nerdy films for me, the least I could do was go on one measly camping trip, who knows, I might actually have fun.


	18. Chapter 18

**Almost didn't manage to finish this chapter on time so it might have more mistakes than usual. Really busy with school so I'm going to push updates back another week, I'm going to update every three weeks now, but if I manage to write more I'll post it as a bonus. **

**Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy, and please try to write a review, I love hearing feedback!**

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><p>I messily piled clothes into my backpack, throwing in some cat food, my laptop, a few comics and a few other additional items. March break would begin tomorrow and everyone was preparing for our thrilling trip to the lake. Despite all my efforts to convince myself it would be fun I still felt uneasy about the whole thing, I hadn't been out of the city in a long time and the last time hadn't gone so well for me.<p>

"You about ready to go?" I looked up and found Astrid leaning against my doorframe with a duffle bag hanging from one arm and a pair of binoculars around her neck. "You should bring a water bottle, for when we go on hikes."

"Hikes?"

She laughed. "Yeah, what did you think we were going to do out in the middle of the woods all week?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Hiccup." She said crouching down beside me. "Are you alright? You know if you don't want to go, you can just say so, I'm sure the guys will understand."

I shook my head. "I'm fine, really. As long as you're there I'm sure I'll be okay."

Astrid smiled. "Just tell me if something's wrong okay?"

"I will."

"We still have time before we go, Tuffnut and Ruffnut will be in class until two, you want to do something until then? Celebrate?"

I zipped up my bag. "Celebrate? Celebrate what?"

Astrid pulled out a slip of paper from her back pocket and dangled it in front of me. "Celebrate the dean officially removing the ban on pets in our dorm? That sounds celebration worthy am I right?"

I sprung up, wide eyed. "No."

"Yes."

I snatched the paper from her and stared at it with a wide grin. "That was so fast."

"Yeah, well, five phone calls a day usually gets them to speed up a bit."

I looked up from the form and smiled at her. "How did I get so lucky?"

"Luck's got nothing to do with it, it was all me." Astrid joked with a cheeky grin.

"I was talking about you."

She laughed. "Do I deserve a kiss, hmmm?" She turned her head so that her right cheek was facing me and she tapped her finger on it. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she turned her face towards me and I ended up kissing her lips. After a few seconds she pulled away and ran out of the room laughing. "Come on, are we going to celebrate or what?" Astrid called out from the hallway.

I shook my head and chuckled as I walked after her. "Where are we going?"

"We should go somewhere near a camping goods store, we really need to get you some useful camping equipment, we can grab some before we come back."

I caught up to her and glowered. "We're going to be in a cabin, I don't need anything spiffy."

"And you know this because of all your camping experience from when…?"

I sighed. "Alright, I'll get a water bottle."

"No way, you're going to need a compass and a whistle." Astrid said. "I don't want you getting lost and dying in the woods, I would need to find another boyfriend, what a hassle.""

"Ha-ha." I said nudging her. "Fine, I'll get a compass and a whistle...anything else?"

"A jack knife is always good to have." She looked down at my feet. "And you are definitely going to need some good shoes, sneakers won't do, some sort of work or hiking boots."

I sighed exaggeratedly. "I didn't realize taking a vacation was so much dang work, we're not actually camping."

"Don't worry, I know what you need to get, just follow me."

"Alright, where first?" I asked as we made our way out of the parking lot and onto the sidewalk.

Astrid glanced off into the distance and narrowed her eyes. "Is that...Snotlout and Heather?"

I looked in the direction she was facing and saw Heather walking down the street, clearly irritated, with Snotlout hovering over her shoulder, trying to chat her up. "Oh yeah."

She looked over at me. "Oh yeah? Am I missing something?"

"Remember when I said that I got Snotlout to start chasing another girl…?"

Astrid gasped. "You didn't."

"I did." I replied. "I had to find _someone_ to divert his attention, and I don't know many girls if you haven't noticed, sorry Heather."

She laughed a little. "Alright, let's go, we only have an hour before the twins get back from class."

* * *

><p>The ride to the lake was long and stuffy, we had all piled into Snotlout's hand-me-down minivan, which for the six of us would have normally been fine if not for all of our luggage. The stale smell of old van that I was usually able to ignore became unbearable after an hour on the road. Snotlout and Tuffnut, who had taken the two front seats both had separately awful tastes in music and we had the pleasure of listening to it while simultaneously listening to them argue over it. The whole thing felt worth it once we reached the camp though, it was beautiful, the pine trees that surrounded us were incredibly tall, the lake was clear and shimmering and our cabin was exactly what you would imagine. It was old, made out of wood with a tall stone chimney and a small porch.<p>

"This is sick!" Tuffnut exclaimed jumping out of the van.

I laughed. "Not exactly what I was thinking, but it does look pretty nice."

"It's got a great view of the lake." Ruffnut said. "Look, there's even a dock, we should go swimming later."

Hiccup emerged from the back of the van. "Don't you think it's a little cold to go swimming? Maybe we should wait for it to warm up, just in case."

"What?" Snotlout scoffed. "Just in case? Are you kidding, it's perfect weather, this is the warmest it's been all month."

"Water makes you colder, you might think it's warm now but once you're soaking wet you'll probably change your mind."

Fishlegs opened up the trunk. "Guys, guys, argue later, unpack first."

"Fish is right." I seconded. "We need to get unpacked, then we can decide what to do for fun." I grabbed my bag, hauled it over my shoulder and walked into the cabin. It smelled like pine and firewood inside, all the furniture looked hand-crafted and the floors were all covered in thick rugs. Ruffnut entered behind me and I turned to look at her. "Is it just me, or does this feel like the setting of a horror movie?"

Ruff smirked. "Oh definitely, a bunch of university students renting an old cabin in the middle of the woods? We're goners." She walked past me and went towards the stairs. "Come on, we can get first dibs on the rooms." I followed after her up the stairs and watched as she peered into each room. "Looks like we got three rooms, four single beds, one double bed." Ruffnut shot me a mischievous grin.

"What?"

"I guess you and lover boy are getting the double."

I flushed red. "No way man, we can't do that."

"What's the big deal? You've been dating for more than two months now." I averted my eyes away from her. "Haven't you guys done it? Seriously? You taking it slow or something?"

I growled at her. "When have you known me to take things quickly?"

"Yeah, but we're not in highschool anymore, Astrid."

"I don't see what that has to do with this." I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming up the stairs. "Besides, if I bunk with Hiccup, you'll have to bunk with Tuffnut and that leaves Snotlout and Fishlegs."

Ruffnut picked up her bag. "Alright, fair enough, you want to take the double so the guys don't have to?"

I laughed. "Yeah right, take the one on the end."

* * *

><p>After everyone had unpacked their things and set up their rooms it was too late to go swimming so we set up a campfire outside and sat around it roasting marshmallows and drinking beer. It felt kind of surreal, this was exactly what I imagined normal adolescents to do while camping but I had never actually gotten the chance to do it myself.<p>

"So there was this couple driving home through the woods at night…"

"Heard it."

Snotlout glared across the fire at Ruffnut. "You didn't even let me finish."

"The claw hanging from the door handle right?" Fishlegs asked. "I've heard it too."

"No, it's a different one."

"Then it's the one where the boyfriend is hanging over the car." Tuffnut said after taking a swig from his beer can. "Dude, you ran out of original scary stories in like, the fifth grade. Give it up."

Snot crossed his arms. "You got anything better then?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Tuffnut gloated. "My grandad told me and Ruff about this lake before we came here, apparently rumor has it that there is a terrifying creature that lives in the water called the scauldron. He said that it heats up water in it's enormous belly and spits it out boiling hot."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Yeah right."

"I heard it too," Ruffnut said leaning in towards Astrid. "Apparently that's how it kills it's prey before dragging it into the water to eat."

"Someone's been drinking too much."

Snotlout laughed. "The claw story was way more scary than that."

"Maybe we should turn in." Fishlegs suggested while looking at his watch. "At this rate we won't see any daylight tomorrow, and it'd be a shame if we missed out on spotting the scauldron."

"Oh so you believe us now?" Tuffnut asked chucking a can at Fish.

Astrid stood up and brushed the dirt off of the back of her shorts. "I think he's right, we've had enough to drink for one night, let's save some for the rest of the week alright?" Everyone grumbled but seemed to comply, once they began to shuffle inside Astrid directed her attention towards me. "Having fun yet?"

"Are you kidding? I'm drinking beer in the woods, I'm one of the cool kids now."

She laughed and linked arms with me. "Not if you say things like that."

"You know, I may not be the outdoorsman type, but this is pretty nice. No school, no dad, just doing whatever." I sighed. "It felt pretty good to act out the marshmallows and scary stories stereotype."

"What, you never went camping before? That's like the whole point."

I shrugged. "Not really, I mean, my dad owned a summer home when I was a kid but I only ever got to go a few times and it was just me and him, so, you can imagine how much fun that was."

"Not going to lie, that sounds really lame." Astrid said. "But we're here, we're going to have a real vacation, and we're going to have fun, just you wait."

I smiled at her as we walked back into the cabin to sleep.

* * *

><p>"Hells yeah!" Snotlout roared bursting out of the cabin, swim trunks on, a folding chair under his arm and a grin across his face.<p>

Ruffnut scowled at him as she pulled her pants off revealing her bikini underneath. "Don't be so loud man, there are other people on the lake too you know." I yanked my dress over my head and discarded it, Ruff turned to look at me. "Really? I knew you were frugal, but wearing your swim team suit?"

"Don't diss athletic swimwear, it's crazy comfy." I shot back. "It's just you and the guys anyway, what's the big deal?"

"You consider your boyfriend 'one of the guys'?"

"Yeah, because I happen to be dating my best friend." Ruff whacked me on the arm. "Alright, alright, second best friend."

Fishlegs and Tuffnut walked out of the cabin and joined us on the dock. "So, who's going in first?" Tuffnut asked. "Unless you're afraid of the scauldron? Snotlout?"

"I'll do you one better." Snot said smirking. "I'll do a cannonball off of that bridge." He pointed off towards a bridge connecting two sides of one of the more narrow parts of the lake, the highest point on the bridge was probably thirty feet from the water's surface.

"Oh man, you gotta do it!" Tuffnut cried out. "Let's go."

We all gathered our things and headed off towards the bridge, as we walked past the cabin Hiccup walked out looking puzzled. "Hey, come with us, we're going to watch Snotlout jump off of a bridge."

"You guys are swimming?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't really feel like swimming."

I grabbed his arm. "Come on, you can just watch, you don't actually have to get in the water."

"...Alright." He replied, joining me as I walked down the dirt road. The height of the bridge felt higher from on top, but that didn't stop Snotlout from climbing onto the edge and making a giant splash as he cannonballed into the water.

"Again! Again!" The twins cheered while laughing and clapping. As Snotlout swam back to shore Tuffnut turned to Hiccup. "Hey, you're here, you should go too."

He shook his head. "No, I'm not going in the water, I didn't even bring swim shorts."

"Oh come on, it's just a little water."

Hiccup scowled. "Look, I just don't want to go swimming, okay?"

"Are you going next man?" Snotlout asked as he approached from behind.

"Nah, I think we got to him with the scauldron last night." Ruffnut teased.

"I'm not afraid of the scauldron, I just don't have my shorts and I don't want to swim."

I crossed my arms and sighed. "Guys, he said he doesn't want to go swimming, just leave him alone alright?"

"Dude, we totally made that shit up, there's nothing in the water."

"That's not-" Before Hiccup could finish his sentence Snotlout had pulled him into a fireman's carry. "Whoa, put me down Snot!" He yelled right before he was tossed over the side of the bridge and into the lake.

"Face your fears man!" Snotlout called out.

We all rushed to look down into the water as Hiccup's head surfaced and he gasped for air. I glared at Snotlout. "Not cool, you can't just throw people off of bridges."

"What's he doing?" Tuffnut asked.

I looked down again where Hiccup was thrashing and gasping. "You idiot-! He can't swim!" I dove into the water, swam towards him and grabbed his torso, pulling him towards the shore. I dragged Hiccup out of the water and looked over at his face, he was unconscious. I immediately began doing compressions, it only took a few before he started to cough and choke up water. I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Don't scare me like that." It was then that I noticed that his left wet pant leg clung strangely to his leg, I lifted the material slightly and almost instantly pushed it back down.

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><p><strong>GAH, I didn't mean to extend the waiting time right before a cliffhanger, I swear it wasn't on purpose! Sorry guys!<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

**A busy weekend coming up, so I decided to post this earlier just in case. Just a heads up, this is the first chapter that contains a POV that isn't Astrid's or Hiccup's, I want to make sure you guys don't get confused when you read it. **

**Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>I coughed up water onto the shore as Astrid rubbed my back reassuringly. I could hear the others pattering footsteps as they ran off of the bridge and around towards me. The jig was up, everyone knew now, Astrid knew. It was embarrassing enough that I didn't know how to skate, but this was a whole other level of embarrassment. I was a nineteen year-old man who couldn't swim.<p>

"Is he okay?!" I heard Fishlegs call out as he hurried toward us.

Astrid waved her arms at them as they approached. "He's fine guys, I can help him to the cabin. You should go ahead and get some towels ready, maybe start a fire so we can dry his clothes."

"Got it."

Astrid held onto my arm and helped me up. "Can you stand?" I nodded. "You should have told me, you almost drowned."

I sighed and returned to my feet. "I know, it's just embarrassing to admit that you don't know how to swim at this age, I should've learned a long time ago." I wrung the water out of the front of my shirt. "You're not, mad, are you?"

"No...no, of course not."

I eyed Astrid as we climbed up to the road, she looked distracted, almost nervous. "Are you alright? You seem, I don't know, nervous."

"I'm fine."

I furrowed my brows. "If you're mad just tell me, it's better than hiding it."

"I'm not mad." She said calmly, averting her eyes. "I just want to get back to the cabin, I'm feeling kind of faint right now."

I nodded despite feeling restless and we made our way onto the path and back to the cabin where everyone was standing around by the driveway waiting for us, a fresh pile of towels sitting on the porch. Snotlout was the first to notice us, and he grabbed a towel and walked over to hand it to me. "I'm really sorry man, I didn't know you couldn't swim." Astrid glared at him. "That's no excuse though, I promise, from now on, I won't throw you off any more bridges. Scouts honour."

I chuckled weakly and took the towel from him, draping it over my head. "Sounds like a deal." I wanted to be pissed and yell at him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it after his apology, he seemed genuinely sorry for what he did. Everyone else apologized too and even though I could tell they wanted to tease me about it, they stopped themselves.

After I had dried off and changed my clothes things seemed to return to normal, we went on a short hike, had lunch in the brush and came back to the cabin. All the while it was apparent to me that Astrid was a bit off, when she wasn't spacing out she seemed to be tiptoeing around me. Something was up, and I was worried.

"We're thinking of grilling the meat tonight, sound good to you guys?" Tuffnut asked grinning at me from across the living room.

"Yeah, that sounds great." I turned to Astrid, but she seemed to be completely zoned out and barely even paying any attention. "Astrid?"

"What? Oh, yeah that sounds fine." She smiled at me. "You guys can start without me, I'm going to change my clothes and take a shower."

I watched as Astrid slowly walked up the stairs. "I should get changed too." I said, making an excuse before following quickly behind her.

* * *

><p>As soon as I got into my room I sat on the bedside and let out a long heavy sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. My mind was racing and I could barely concentrate all day. I just couldn't process what I had discovered at the water bank, I wasn't even sure if I had seen what I thought I had seen. There was no way Hiccup could have hidden something like this for so long, could he? If he did have a false leg this whole time, why did he hide it? Was he embarrassed? Did he think I would break up with him? That thought disturbed me, I couldn't stop running it through my mind. <em>Hiccup wouldn't think that. <em>Suddenly the door opened and Hiccup entered the room, shutting the door behind him. "Talk to me."

I looked up at him. "...It's nothing."

"I know it's not nothing, don't lie to me." He sighed. "Is this about me not being able to swim?"

I groaned and threw my head back. "No, Hiccup, I don't care about that."

"Then you're upset that I didn't tell you." He said walking closer to me. "I would have told you."

"Would you have told me about your leg?" I blurted out. Once I realized what I had said, I quickly averted my eyes.

Hiccup's face was immediately overtaken by shock. "...What?" He managed to choke out. "How did you know?"

"You're pants were wet, they were clinging to your fake leg." He backed up and bumped into Ruffnut's bedpost, stumbling. I stood up and reached out to help him. "Do you need help?"

"Why, because I'm a cripple?"

I winced at his curt tone and recoiled my hand. "What's wrong with you? I'm just-" I growled in frustration and moved towards the door. "I can't do this, I need to clear my head."

"Wait!" Hiccup cried grabbing my arm. "You can't...do what?"

I shook my head and sighed. "Talk about this right now, I-" I noticed how clammy Hiccup's hands were and when I turned to look at him I could see the fear in his eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that? Did you think I was going to dump you over this?" He stayed silent. "So I was right, that is why you didn't tell me." I wrenched my arm from his grasp. "Do you think I'm that shallow of a person?"

He bit his lower lip. "I've just...learned to have low expectations."

"I don't care how many legs you have, I can't believe you thought I would do something like that." I looked away from him. "Don't you even trust me?"

"Of course I do," Hiccup said shaking his head and moving closer. "It's not like that, I know I should have told you sooner, it's-"

"Everyone has the right to keep secrets Hiccup, it's not that you hid it, it's why you hid it." I looked into his eyes. "Even if you didn't trust the whole world, I thought you'd at least trust me...but you think I'm the kind of person who could do something like that."

Hiccup stepped forward and grabbed my hand. "Astrid, that's not it-"

"Then what is it?"

"You don't understand what it's like...how different people treat you, they act like I can't do anything for myself. My own father included." Hiccup clutched my hand tighter. "I wanted to tell you, and I wanted to trust that you wouldn't care, but in the back of my mind I was so afraid of losing you. That you would be embarrassed of me."

"Hiccup…" I pulled him into a hug. "I would _never_ be embarrassed of you."

I felt his arms slowly wrap around me. "These past few months were probably the best in my life, and I didn't want anything to change."

"It won't." I pulled back a bit to look up at him. "It hasn't, you don't have to hide anything from me, I know who you are Hiccup."

"The guys-"

"Don't need to know about this, you tell them when you're ready to tell them. Not one day sooner." I gave him a peck on the lips before pulling him back into a tight hug. "They're your friends, if they leave because of this, they weren't really your friends in the first place."

I could feel him sigh against me. "You don't think, they would, do you?"

"They might be assholes, but they wouldn't do something like that to you." I gave him a pat on the back. "I mean, you already got them to be friends with a nerd, I don't think a one-legged nerd is really much different to them." He held onto me tighter. "I'm here for you Hiccup, I'm not going to leave because of something so stupid." I said smiling. "So if you're missing anymore limbs...you might as well tell me now."

He chuckled. "Nope, not missing anything else."

I looked down at his feet. "Can I see it?" I looked back up at him. "If you're uncomfortable-"

Hiccup shook his head. "It's alright, you can see it." He sat down on the bed and began slowly rolling up his pant leg and then rolling down his sock to reveal a short prosthetic limb.

I knelt down to get a better look at it, it was below the knee, just half-way up his leg. I could tell that my staring was distressing to him. "You don't have to be so nervous."

"I guess I'm just not used to anyone...looking at it so much."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about." I reassured him. "Let me take it off."

"What?" Hiccup stared at me wide-eyed. "Don't do that."

I gently placed a hand on the leg. "What are you so afraid of Hiccup?"

"I don't want you to be, you know..." He rubbed his neck awkwardly and looked away from me. "Grossed out by it or something."

I frowned at him. "It's just a stump, I'm not going to be grossed out by it." I reached over and placed my hand onto his. "If you're uncomfortable I'll leave it, but you don't have to be embarrassed in front of me, remember that." He reached down and began taking the leg off. "Hiccup,"

"It's alright, I don't feel pressured if that's what you're worried about." He said flashing a smile at me. "You're right, I shouldn't be embarrassed to show you." He dropped the prosthetic onto the floor and I looked at what was left of his leg.

Using my hand I fanned myself and swooned dramatically. "So sexy." We both laughed and smiled at each other. I placed both my hands on his knees and pushed myself up to kiss him, to my surprise, when I went to move away Hiccup put his arms around my back and pulled me closer. I put my arms around his neck and began moving my fingers through his hair as we continued kissing. Hiccup leaned back until he was lying flat on the bed with me straddling on top of him. His hands rose from my back and tried playing with my hair, but my braid was restrictive.

"Take if off." I said through breaths.

He pulled the hairband out, tossing it aside, and raked his fingers through the braid, undoing it.

* * *

><p>After Hiccup and Astrid had gone upstairs we began preparing for dinner, putting the meat on grill, getting out the sauces and sides, and preparing the drinks. As I laid down the last plate onto the table I glanced into the cabin. "What are they doing up there? They sure are taking their sweet time, do you think I should go get them?"<p>

Ruffnut grabbed my arm and shook her head. "No, that's probably not a good idea Fish."

"Why not?"

"I think they're busy right now." Tuffnut said smirking at me. "You know, _busy._"

I looked around the table at everyone. "Can't it wait? They're going to miss dinner."

"Just trust me man," Snotlout said slapping me on the shoulder. "It's definitely worth missing dinner for, I would know."

"We should at least let them know it's ready though."

Tuff shook his head. "This is not something you should interrupt, my friend."

I narrowed my eyes. "I can't tell if you guys are yanking my chain or what…"

"Just eat your food Fish, they'll come down when they come down." Ruffnut said pulling a few hot dogs off of the grill. "We'll save them some if it makes you feel any better."

"Hah, speak for yourself." Tuffnut snorted, pulling out a beer from the cooler. "The early bird gets the worm, am I right?" He said turning to Snotlout for a high five.

Ruff rolled her eyes. "Is that your sad attempt to sound smart?"

"I don't need to _sound _smart."

She laughed. "You're right, because everyone already knows that you're an idiot"

"At least I'm smarter than Fishlegs." He said laughing and gesturing towards me with his thumb.

I glared at Tuffnut. "Hey, in what universe are you smarter than me? Wait till report cards come out, then come and say that."

"I'm just saying, you're the only one who hasn't figured out what's going on upstairs."

"Huh?" I furrowed my eyebrows. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Tuffnut opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of footsteps on the stairs silenced him. Hiccup and Astrid came down the steps and out the back door to join us, Astrid was uncharacteristically wearing her hair down and the both of them looked a little disheveled with flushed smiling faces.

"Oh! They were having sex!" I exclaimed, quickly slapping a hand over my mouth.

* * *

><p>"Hiccup, you dog!" Snotlout yelled, giving me a hard punch in the arm. "For a while I didn't think you had it in you, how was it?"<p>

I sat on a small log, looking out at the moon-lit lake between my fingers. "Will you lower your voice? What if the girls hear you talking about this?"

"Relax man, the girls are all the way down at the cabin, they won't hear you." Tuffnut assured me.

They both leaned towards me eagerly waiting for my response. "Whether they can hear me or not, I am _not_ going to tell you about it." I sighed. "I can't believe you guys knew what we were doing the whole time, could you hear us?"

"Nah, it was just obvious." Snotlout said grinning. "I mean, you guys were up there for a while, after the half hour mark my spidey senses started tingling." I shot him a confused expression. "I read through some of your comics."

"Ah."

"If it makes you feel any better, I had no idea until you came down." Fishlegs said patting me on the shoulder.

"Actually, it would have probably ended better if you had figured it out earlier." I said sighing. "Then maybe you wouldn't have awkwardly blurted it out in front of everyone."

Snotlout crouched down beside me. "Okay okay, you don't need to get into the nitty gritty, but, it was good right?" I tried to hold back a smile. "You dog!" He cried out, springing to his feet.

I covered my flushed face with my hands. "Guys please."

"This was your first time right?" Tuffnut asked leering over at me. "Me and Snot have a bet going so be honest, how long did you last?"

* * *

><p>"Two minutes? Three minutes?"<p>

Ruffnut crossed her arms. "Hmph, longer than I thought."

I sighed. "Honestly, I don't know, that was the last thing I was worried about at the time."

"Oooh, really?" She sneered jokingly. "How big was he?"

I scowled and gave her a shove. "Nuh-uh, that's where I draw the line. You do _not_ need to know something like that about him."

"You did use a condom right?"

"Of course I did."

She smirked at me. "You brought condoms with you? I'm impressed."

"Actually I didn't, I just stole the one you always keep in your wallet."

Ruffnut grabbed her wallet from the bedside table and looked inside. "Hey, what am I supposed to do if I get some action?"

"With who? We're in the middle of the woods, unless you're thinking of trying it with Snotlout or Fishlegs."

She scowled and tossed a pillow at me. "Gross, don't even joke about that." I laughed and caught the pillow, hugging it to my chest. We heard the front door slam and muffled chattering in the living room. "Looks like the boys are back, you want to go down?"

I sighed heavily. "Yeah, I can't hide up here forever." We both stood and made our way down the stairs, Hiccup's eyes immediately caught mine and I could feel my face start heating up again. As I expected, Snotlout and Tuffnut wasted no time, and began smirking to one another and giggling like a couple of preteen girls. "Gentlemen." I said nodding. "Tuffnut, Snotlout."

"...I think it's time we went to bed." Fishlegs said walking towards the stairs and motioning for Snotlout and Tuffnut to follow him, they reluctantly complied. Ruffnut slapped me on the back and followed behind them without a word.

Hiccup and I looked at each other from across the room and we both laughed. "Oh gods," he said covering his face. "We're never going to live this down."

I moved towards him, taking his hands and pulling them away from his face. "I don't care." He leaned forward and placed a short kiss on my lips. "You still think it grosses me out?"

Hiccup chuckled. "I guess I'm stuck with you now."

"Ha-ha." I said wrinkling my nose at him.

He turned and walked over to the kitchen, opening the cupboard. "Do you you want something to drink? I think there's still some soda leftover."

"Sure." I watched as he pulled out two glasses and bent over to open the cooler. My eyes trailed down to his leg, it looked so real, and even though I knew it was a fake leg it was still hard to tell. Hiccup walked just like any other person, and I wondered to myself how long it must have taken to learn to walk properly again. "Hiccup?"

"Mmhm?"

"Would you tell me how it happened?"

He turned around and looked at me from behind the island. His expression appeared a little shocked at first, but it quickly changed into a small smile. "Yeah, I'll tell you."

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><p><strong>This chapter turned out a lot longer and with a lot more of Astrid's POV than I intended. I'm going to try and add more Hiccup next time, he is supposed to be the main character of this fic after all.<strong>

**Tell me what you think of Astrid's reaction, I'm still unsure about it. I want her to be supportive because I don't take her to be a shallow person, but I still feel that maybe she accepted it a little too fast. Not sure how someone would react to this situation, so let me know!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Anyone else getting really excited for the next season of the TV show? I feel like I've been waiting forever just to know the release date, I'm so glad that they're going to use the older character designs rather than the younger ones.**

**Anyhoo, chapter 20 is here! Woohoo! I hope you enjoy :)**

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><p>"Yeah, I'll tell you."<p>

"Now?"

"When we get there."

I let out an exaggerated sigh. "Just tell meee" I whined. "Daaad"

"Now, now Hiccup." He said glancing back at me from the driver's seat. "Don't be a pest, we'll be there soon enough alright?"

I sighed and stared out the window at the trees passing by the car. Slowly but surely, the trees thinned and soon I was staring out at a large glistening lake surrounded by woods and a few old cabins. I gasped and pressed my face up against the car window. "Dad! It's a lake!"

He let out a throaty chuckle. "It sure is, do you see the island out in the water? That's where our cabin is. We used to go when you were little, remember?"

Dad drove the car onto a ferry and I stood at the edge, watching the water foam up and thrash around the side of the boat. The island grew more and more enormous as we neared the docks, the trees were so incredibly narrow and tall. I leapt off of the ferry the instant the gate opened and I ran off into the woods, despite the calls from my father as he drove the car off of the boat. As I wandered through what seemed like an endless forest I heard a small rustle and jumped around.

_Mew_

A small black kitten crept out from beneath a bush and I knelt down to touch it. "Hi there Mr. Cat. Where are your parents?"

It recoiled away from my hand so I grabbed a slim jim from my backpack and extended it out for him to eat. The cat cautiously moved closer and started to nibble on the snack his pace sped up and soon he had eaten the entire thing. I reached my hand out again, and this time he sniffed it and even let me pet him.

"Hiccup!" My dad called out, storming towards me. "You shouldn't be playing with wild animals!"

The cat screeched and dove back under the bush it had been hiding in. "He didn't hurt me dad."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. "Don't ever go running off like that, do you know how worried you had me?" He turned around. "Let's get to the cabin."

"Can't I stay here a little longer?"

"No." He replied sternly, pulling me back towards the road.

I sighed and followed him all the back to the cabin, as soon as he got a phone call from work and left the room I grabbed a can of tuna from the cupboard and snuck out the back, racing back to where I had found the kitten.

I pushed back the leaves of the bush to find the cat still hiding inside, I opened the can and placed it on the ground for him. "You don't need to be afraid." I said softly. "I won't hurt you."

The kitten crept out and began nibbling at the can of tuna. "My name is Hiccup." I said scratching behind his ears. "What's yours?" He mewed at me before continuing to eat the tuna. "You don't have one? How about...Toothless?"

* * *

><p>"That cat...he was Toothless?"<p>

I nodded. "Yeah, he was so small back then...he was probably only a few weeks old when I found him. I'm still not sure what happened to his family."

"Your father, he doesn't like cats?"

"I think it's more like he doesn't like animals. Especially wild ones." I said sighing. "It's just the way he was raised, I think that was one of the reasons my mother left, she loved animals and realized that she wouldn't be able to study them with my father around."

"Are they separated?"

"Technically I guess" I replied. "I don't think they're planning on getting divorced or anything, she always asks about him in her letters and my dad never has anything bad to say about her."

I dipped my head down and Astrid gently patted my hair. "You don't have to continue if it's too much."

"It's alright."

* * *

><p>"I told you not to go out and wander through the woods, it's dangerous."<p>

I stomped my foot. "What's the point of coming out here if you won't let me do anything? You only stop to talk to me when you want to scold me for something."

"You could be hurt out there, Hiccup."

I stormed to my room and slammed the door as hard as I could. "You're not even listening to me!" I dove underneath my covers and curled into a ball.

I could hear my father lumbering over to my door. "Hiccup."

"Go away! I hate you!"

"How about we go fishing together?"

"I don't even like fishing! Go by yourself!"

I waited for him to insist I go with him, but nothing came, instead I listened as he wandered down stairs and out the door with a faint slam. I roughly rubbed away the tears that burned in my eyes and Toothless popped his little head out from underneath my bed. "You can come out now, bud." Toothless jumped up onto the bed and curled up onto my lap. "Just two more days, then I can take you home." I said lying onto my back.

I didn't mean to fall asleep, I just didn't want to disturb Toothless. When I woke up, my room was full of smoke, it was seeping in from the crack under my door. My vision was blurred but I knew what was going on, the house was on fire. I was on the second floor so I couldn't jump down, and the other people staying on the island weren't close enough for me to yell to them, so I tried to escape through the house. I stumbled to me feet, coughing and wheezing and when I opened the door to the hall it only let in more smoke. The cabin was on fire and I had to find a way to escape, I rushed down the stairs and frantically searched for an exit but all the smoke made it so hard to see and I could barely breathe. I felt so light headed, before I could make it out, I passed out from the smoke.

* * *

><p>"What happened?" Astrid said setting her empty glass on the coffee table and leaning forward.<p>

"Someone had forgotten to put out their campfire, and it started a forest fire." I said. "Luckily, Toothless had escaped and managed to wake the closest neighbours, he saved my life."

"Toothless did?" She asked, mouth ajar. "How?"

I laughed at the memory. "According to the woman next door, he had snuck in through the dog door, scratched up her face and got her to chase him until she saw the smoke outside. That was the story I woke up to, it wasn't the only story unfortunately." I looked towards Astrid. "A beam had fallen and crushed my foot while I was unconscious."

Astrid gasped and covered her mouth. "How could your father possibly dislike Toothless after what happened?"

"Actually," I started, scratching the back of my neck. "He doesn't know, when the neighbor visited the hospital to return Toothless to me, my father was speaking to the doctors. I never told him."

"Why not?"

I shrugged. "I guess I didn't think he'd listen to me."

Astrid put her hand over mine and gave it a light squeeze. "How old were you?"

"Twelve." I said, squeezing her hand back. "That's why I never learned to skate or swim. Before I had the chance, I had to start learning to walk again. It's also a little difficult to hide a prosthetic limb under swim trunks."

"When you're ready, I can teach you." She offered. "I'm a certified lifeguard and a pretty damn good skater."

I grinned at her. "That sounds nice."

* * *

><p>"I expected this trip to be a lot less eventful than it turned out to be." Ruffnut said as she shuffled her clothes into her bag haphazardly.<p>

I chuckled. "You don't know the half of it."

"It's getting really serious between you two isn't it?" She asked smirking at me. "I'll be honest, I didn't think he would last very long. I thought you were just going through that phase every hot girl goes through, where they date a quirky nice guy for a few weeks."

"You should try it out," I suggested. "You might like the quirky nice guy type."

Ruff zipped up her bag. "I think I'll take a few more chances with the raging assholes thanks, I'm shallow remember?"

"Of course." I said laughing.

"So, you going to bring Hiccup to visit your parents?"

I scowled. "You know the answer to that."

"Seriously? They're still acting like jackasses after you won a full scholarship? You should show them your grade point average." She said crossing her arms. "Maybe you'd get your first hug."

I crouched down by the bed and pulled out a sweater from underneath it. "They don't give a shit, I've gotten good grades my entire life." I said placing the sweater into my bag. "I've just got to finish my bachelor, get enough money for law school, finish law school and then maybe I can finally get them out of my life for good."

"What do you mean get them out of your life?" Ruff asked slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Are they giving you money for school?"

I zipped up my bag. "Yeah right, even if they could afford to they wouldn't."

"Then why are they in your life at all? I thought you cut all ties with them when you graduated from high school."

I sighed and picked up my bag. "Sadly, life isn't that simple. There's some family stuff I have to deal with, and they never answer the phone so..."

Ruffnut dropped her bag and grabbed me by the shoulders. "You've been visiting them?"

"Relax, I've only gone a few times. They're short visits too."

She scowled. "You shouldn't be visiting them."

I sighed and pushed past her. "Look, I don't really have a choice. Now come on, let's go."

"What kind of family stuff is so important that you had to go back there?"

"Get your bag."

"Astrid."

"It's not something I want to talk about okay?" I snapped. "Just drop it."

Ruffnut pressed her lips into a thin line and picked up her bag. "Fine." She said flatly. "Do whatever the hell you want."

* * *

><p>After a week of hikes, beer and campfires march break came to an end. It felt like it had ended just as I was starting to really have some fun but I knew I there would be more trips to come. The discovery of my leg seemed horrific at first, but after talking it out, Astrid and I were even closer than before. It was a weight off of my shoulders and I had never felt more secure than I feel now.<p>

"Where are they?" Tuffnut groaned. "They're taking forever."

Snotlout climbed into the front seat and slammed the door. "They're girls, they're probably gossiping or something like that."

"Well, can someone tell them to stop gossiping and finish packing already." He said leaning up against the van. "I finished ages ago."

"That probably has something to do with the fact that you only brought a single set of clothes." Fishlegs teased. "Just calm down, they'll be down soon enough."

"There they are." I said pointing towards the door as they exited the cabin. "Hey, you guys ready to go?" I asked, but they both walked swiftly past me, exchanging no words. "What's up with them?" I whispered to Fishlegs, he shrugged in response.

"Alright, get your shit in the trunk and let's hit the road." Snotlout called out from the drivers seat.

Both girls tossed their bags into the trunk and started climbing into the van quickly, almost robotically. "Hiccup, I'm sitting in the back with you." Astrid said in a quick sharp tone.

"Fine by me." Ruffnut shot back.

"Oh boy, they're fighting, that can't be good." Fishlegs whispered to me. "Just be really nice to them, maybe they won't hurt us."

I climbed into the back of the van slowly and cautiously. I had never experienced a real girl-fight, but from how Fish was describing it, I did not want to get involved. Only ten minutes after leaving the lake I got a phone call from my dad. "Aw, crap." I pressed the accept button, pressed the phone to my ear and used my other hand to cover my exposed ear. "Dad, now is not a great time."

"_Where are you?"_

"I'm in a car, I'm on my way back."

"_From where?"_

"Uh, a lake? Listen, I can barely hear you." All the windows had been rolled down, Tuffnut and Snotlout were still arguing over the radio and Ruffnut was angrily trying to get Astrid to hand her a soda from the back. Even will both ears covered I could only make a few words out over the racket. "Can we talk later?"

"_What lake?"_

"What?"

"_I said; what lake?"_

"I don't know, my friends took me."

"_You should have told me you were going away for March break."_

"What did you say? I should've told you what?" In the background I could hear Ruffnut calling to me as she grabbed at my leg. "Cut it out, I'm on the phone."

"_You should have said something before leaving, I didn't know where you were."_

I rolled my eyes. "Since when did you start to care?"

"_Hiccup,"_

"You barely speak to me, I don't see why I need to report to you."

"_I want to talk more, be a part of your life, that's why I'm calling. Gobber told me you were making friends at school, that's good."_

"Yeah."

"_I was thinking maybe we could have dinner sometime, you could tell me how school was going, tell me about your friends."_

"I guess...I could do that."

Before I could end the conversation an empty can collided with my head. "Hiccup! Tell your girlfriend to pass me a damn soda!" Ruffnut roared.

"_...You have a girlfriend?"_

"Shit."

* * *

><p><strong>Heyo, so I am currently developing a new fic which will still be an AU but will be set in a universe similar to the movie. It's going to be an adventure and I am still debating with myself on whether it should be the whole gang of teens or mostly just Astrid and Hiccup. Let me know what you think, thanks!<strong>


	21. Chapter 21

**Thanks to all those guest reviewers out there! Even though I can't really respond to your comments I hope you guys know I appreciate it :) I think I'm just going to abandon my update schedule, my free time and creativity are just so random, especially with school going on. I'll update when I can, but just so you know, I will never give up on my stories, I know how much that can suck.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"Can we please just make up already, Ruff?" I asked, moving to sit beside her on her bed. "I know you were just worried about me, and I appreciate that, I do. But this is something that I need to deal with on my own, I don't want to get anyone else involved."<p>

Ruffnut shook her head and scowled. "Don't you even remember-"

I winced. "I remember, I remember better than anyone. Trust me. Once everything is settled I'll never speak to them or visit them again. It'll be over. I promise."

"Fine." She said while sighing. "Just-be careful, alright?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"I'm sorry about, well, the thing in the car." She looked away awkwardly, Ruff was never good at apologies. "Hiccup didn't get shit from his dad, did he?"

I laughed. "No, nothing like that, just the usual parental stuff; he wants to meet me now."

"Oh gods, a fate worse than death."

"It's not so bad, despite what Hiccup might say, he seems like an okay guy." I said shrugging. "It's Hiccup who's panicking about it, speaking of which, I have to meet him at the mall soon, he needs a suit."

"A suit?" Ruffnut asked jerking her head back. "What does he need that for?"

"CEO father remember? We're going to a fancy restaurant."

"Are you going to get a dress?"

"I don't need one, I've got a dress." I said. "The blue one I wore at prom."

She rolled her eyes. "You _cannot _wear that dress."

I crossed my arms. "And why not?"

"Because it's crazy old and has no sex appeal."

I frowned. "It was my aunts."

"So not everyone in your family is an asshole?"

"No, though I never met her, she died not long after I was born."

"The dress is _that _old huh?"

"It's vintage." I defended.

"It was ugly then and it's ugly now." I glared at Ruffnut and she held up her palms defensively. "I'm just giving you my honest opinion, I don't want your first impression on Hiccup's dad to be that you dress like an old woman. Besides, you're only going to get so many chances to dress up, don't you want to wear something sexy for Hiccup?."

"I don't need to do something like that," I replied grabbing my purse. "and even if I wanted to I don't have the money to buy dresses."

"I'm sure we could find something cheap, I'll come with you and help look."

I stared at her sternly. "Ruff. No."

"Or I could just help Hiccup find a good suit…?"

I sighed. "Fine, just tone it down."

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

><p>I drummed my fingers on the side of the bench as I waited for Astrid to arrive to the mall. I felt sick just thinking about my dad and my girlfriend meeting, he was a terrible listener and always seemed to say exactly the wrong things. I thought I would've been more happy about him finally trying to be a part of my life, but I wasn't happy, I was far from happy. It was disturbing how he was acting, he would call me all the time, ask me tons of questions about school, remind me to do my homework. It was like he was trying to make up for all the years he had neglected me, it should feel endearing but I only felt overwhelmed.<p>

"Hey,"

I turned around to find Astrid and Ruffnut standing behind me. "You guys not arguing anymore?"

"No, we made up, you know, like good friends should."

I stood up. "Are you also going to help me pick out a suit?" I asked Ruffnut.

"Someone's got to, I'm pretty sure the only thing Astrid has the ability to pick out is sports wear."

Astrid scoffed and punched Ruff in the arm. "Alright, alright, let's just get going, where were you planning on looking first?"

I shrugged. "I was kind of hoping you would know."

"We could check the department store." Astrid suggested.

Ruffnut laughed. "Oh. Wow. I'm really glad I decided to come today, you two would've been a trainwreck out here, have either of you ever bought nice clothes before?"

Astrid and I exchanged glances. "Not really, no."

"I thought your dad was Mr. rich-fancypants." She said sighing.

I scoffed. "You wouldn't be saying that if you knew him at all."

"Yeah," Astrid agreed nodding. "I didn't take your dad for a fancy guy at all, what's up with his choice of venue?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "He's trying to make a good impression, he obviously doesn't know you very well."

Astrid crossed her arms. "What? Who says I'm not the fancy restaurant type of girl?"

"I did. Just now. Weren't you even listening?"

She rolled her eyes. "Alright smart guy, let's just find a suit already."

"I think there's a formal wear store just past the cinema, we should go there." Ruffnut suggested. "They should have everything you need."

We both nodded and began following behind Ruffnut as she lead us towards the store. I had never in my entire nineteen years of existence had to worry about formal wear, no weddings, no funerals, I didn't participate in the graduation ceremony at my highschool and I obviously didn't have any interest in going to prom. So standing there in the men's section, surrounded by suits and ties was a strange feeling. Not particularly good, but not particularly bad either.

"You should wear a bowtie." Astrid said as she rummaged through the neckties.

Ruffnut jerked her head around. "Do _not _wear a bowtie." She then turned her gaze towards Astrid and frowned. "Do you want him to look even more like a geek than he already does?"

"He _is_ a geek." Astrid said before glancing at me briefly. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"If you think I should wear a bowtie then I'll wear a bowtie." I said.

Ruffnut made a puking motion. "You're so whipped."

"Shut up." Astrid said nudging her. "He's going to look _adorable_."

I cringed. "Adorable? You were going for adorable? I wasn't going for adorable." I looked over at Ruffnut. "What were you going for?"

"I was going for hot as fuck, but, you know, I can only do so much."

I looked over at Astrid sympathetically. "I don't know, I kind of like hot as fuck more than adorable."

"Wha-, I was going for hot as fuck too, just, in an adorable way." My expression remained unchanged and she sighed. "Alright, it's your neck, put on whatever lame boring tie you want to."

Ruff handed me two neckties, a yellow and black one and a blue and silver one. "The clerk suggested these two, she said they're the best matches for the suit we picked out."

"What do you guys think?" I asked holding up both ties by my neck. "Yellow and black or blue and silver?" I glanced at myself in one of the mirrors. "I'm thinking yellow and black."

"No way." Astrid insisted, shaking her head. "The blue and silver one definitely matches you better, it makes you look smart."

"I agree, the yellow and black one just makes you look like a generic nice guy." Ruffnut said crossing her arms. "Here," She said handing me the suit and shirt. "Try it on with the suit."

"Alright, I'll be right back." I said taking the clothes and walking off towards the change rooms.

* * *

><p>Hiccup walked towards us, dressed in his dark grey suit, white shirt and blue and silver tie. He still had his sneakers on, but somehow it seemed to really work for him. I could tell by the way he was standing and glancing around the room that he was unsure of himself.<p>

I walked over and kissed him on the cheek. "You look very handsome." He blushed immediately. "Oh, and hot as fuck." I said smiling.

He laughed. "Thanks."

"Sooo, I guess it's Astrid's turn right?" Ruffnut slipped in casually.

I looked over at her and glared. "Ruff. I told you no already."

"What are talking about?" Hiccup asked.

I opened my mouth to dismiss it but Ruffnut was determined and managed to interject before I could say anything. "Astrid needs a dress."

"No, I don't." I said through my teeth. "I have a dress."

"An old fugly dress."

Hiccup shrugged. "We can look for a dress, it's no big deal."

"I don't need a dress." I repeated. "It's a waste of money to buy another one."

He started pulling me by the hand towards the women's section. "You don't have to worry about the money Astrid, I'll buy one for you."

I yanked my hand back. "You don't have to do that."

"I don't." He said in agreement. "I want to."

I sighed heavily. "Hiccup,"

"Astrid."

"It's-" I paused. "It's not necessary for you to buy me things, especially things like expensive dresses."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "You know I have the money, it's not a problem for me."

"I know."

"And I'm your boyfriend, it's socially acceptable for me to buy you things once in a while."

"I know."

Hiccup sighed ."What's the problem then?" I didn't respond. "You're not taking advantage of me, and I'm not nearly old enough for you to be considered a gold digger."

I bit my lip "Right. No, You're right."

"The only reason you need a dress is so you can meet my dad anyway, so I should at least get you it." He took my hand. "Come on."

"...Alright." I agreed reluctantly. "Just this once."

He smiled and lead me into women's section. "What colour do you want?"

"I don't know." I said shrugging. "Something blue I guess?"

Ruffnut let out a loud obnoxious groan. "Don't pick anything similar to your prom dress, I beg you." She looked around. "Diversify your wardrobe, get something purple or…" Her eyes locked in place. "Red." She walked over to the red dresses and began rifling through them.

"Red?" I asked skeptically. "I don't think red is really my colour." She pulled out a short red dress with spaghetti straps and my face crunched up. "Ruff, I'm meeting his dad, I can't go dressed like that."

"Okay, okay," She said putting the dress back. "Something a little more conservative then." Ruffnut pulled out a second dress, it was a dark crimson red and looked just long enough to cover my knees. It was a form fitting dress with long sleeves and a wide, almost off the shoulder neckline. "And here's my favourite part." Ruff said as she turned the dress around to reveal the low back.

I reached out to touch it, the fabric was silky smooth. "It's-nice, but the back is a bit…"

"Oh come on." Ruffnut complained. "Just because you're meeting Hiccup's dad doesn't mean you can look a little sexy...at least try it on."

I sighed and stared at the dress, it was really pretty, I couldn't deny that. "Fine."

* * *

><p>Astrid slowly walked out of the change room and I inhaled sharply. She looked stunning in the dress, more than stunning, she looked gorgeous. Taking a cue from Ruffnut, Astrid twirled around so we could see the back. Astrid had a stunning back, Astrid had a stunning everything. "You look beautiful." I said breathlessly.<p>

Astrid smiled sweetly at me. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Ruffnut scoffed.

I laughed. "Well it's settled, you have to wear that dress."

She reached down to look at the dress's price tag, but I quickly grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "That's probably not a good idea."

"Hiccup."

"Astrid."

She sighed and released the tag. "Okay, okay." She said submitting. "Remember, just this once."

"Of course," I said grinning. "But you know, there's still shoes, oh and jewelry of course."

"You could also get a clutch purse." Ruffnut suggested.

I snapped my fingers. "Right, clutch purse, why didn't I think of that?"

The shopping trip definitely made me feel better about the dinner with my dad, not completely better, but better. The meeting would undoubtedly be awkward, but I wanted my dad to see how awesome my girlfriend was, I wanted him to see that I was doing better than I did highschool. I stood in my room adjusting my tie in the mirror.

"How do I look?" I asked turning to Fishlegs.

"Snazzy."

I huffed and turned back to the mirror. "I'm serious."

"So was I." He replied patting me on the back. "You'll be fine, hasn't Astrid seen you in your suit already? Or are you getting your panties in a wad about your dad."

I glared at him. "It's not-, eugh. I don't know, it's probably both of them." I ran my fingers through my hair. "He just has such high expectations, and tonight, I feel like I might actually live up to some of them...on the other hand, he is super awkward and I don't want him to weird Astrid out."

"She's dating _you_. I think she can handle awkward."

I scowled. "Thanks for the support."

"No problem." Fishlegs replied flashing me a smile.

There was a knock at the door and I walked over and opened it, Astrid was standing in the hall, all dressed up looking as beautiful as ever. Her hair was done up into a loose braided bun and she had simple stud earrings on. "You look beautiful."

She laughed. "You said that already."

"I can't help it, that's just my natural response when I see you." I said before sticking my elbow out for her to hook onto.

"What a gentleman." She said snickering as we walked towards the stairs. "We're going to look like idiots on the subway."

"Well, actually," I said was we walked down the stairs and towards the parking lot. "My dad sent a limo to take us to the restaurant."

Her jaw dropped. "What? For Thor's sake, I feel like we're going to the oscars or something."

"I told you he was trying to impress you."

"I know, I just didn't expect- a limo."

I shrugged. "It's not a stretch."

Astrid snorted and pretended to be upset. "Well if it's not a stretch-"

The limo pulled up and we loaded into the back, Astrid seemed very out of her element. She looked around the inside of the limbo with wide curious eyes. "There's a friggin drink cooler in here."

I chuckled. "Yeah, they usually have those."

She crossed her arms and feigned annoyance. "Oh I see, make fun of the peasant girl who's never been in a limo before."

I laughed and held up my palms. "To be fair, I've only been in a limo like, twenty times, tops." Astrid smirked and punched me in the arm. "You know, this sorta feels like our first date-date. Since we've never eaten in a sit down restaurant together."

She crinkled up her nose. "That's a little weird, since your dad's going to be with us."

"Don't remind me." I joked.

"Where are we going anyway?"

I looked out the window at the lit downtown streets. "Somewhere french I think. We're probably almost there, my dad said it was on this street."

* * *

><p>"We're here." The driver said, stopping the car.<p>

I stepped out of the limo and in front of the restaurant. It had tall glass windows and a great big awning over the sidewalk. Hiccup exited the vehicle behind me and a doorman opened the door for us as we walked in. The luxurious atmosphere was overwhelming, I had never experienced anything quite like this.

"He's waiting for you up on the terrace." The hostess informed us while gesturing towards the elevator on her right. "Tenth floor."

I suddenly felt anxious. I had been so calm and relaxed about the dinner all week, but with the dress, the limo and the fancy restaurant all crashing down onto me I felt like an alien on a foreign planet. Hiccup's father felt so built up that when I realised how close I was too meeting him I felt so uncharacteristically nervous.

The ping of the elevator pulled me from my thoughts and the doors slid open. Hiccup walked out at a brisk pace, while I tried to walk towards the terrace slowly. Hiccup walked outside, and I watched as he lifted a hand to wave. "Hey, dad."

"Glad you could make it."


	22. Chapter 22

**No one got my tie reference last time? Oh well, maybe it was a little too obscure.**

**Early chapter today! Yay!**

* * *

><p>He looked nothing like Hiccup, that was my first thought. Hiccup was silm, gangly and tall, but his father towered over him, he was enormous, in all dimensions. Hiccup could barely grow stubble, his father on the other hand had a great big red beard. He greeted Hiccup upon arrival but when he turned to look over at me he seemed shocked.<p>

I took a few cautious steps towards him and cleared my throat. "It's nice to meet you."

His expression suddenly became ecstatic and he grabbed one of my hands and shook it vigorously. "The pleasure is all mine, you can call me Stoick."

I nodded. "Astrid."

"Come, sit, sit. I've already ordered the food." He said gesturing towards the table. "There's so much I have to ask!" Hiccup and I both sat on either side of him around the table. Stoick sat down and scooted in towards us, leaning forward eagerly. "How long have you been together?"

Hiccup and I exchanged glances. "Two, two and a half months?" I said.

"That sounds right." Hiccup said nodding.

"And, how did you two…?"

"We live in the same building." Hiccup replied.

Stoick nodded and directed his attention towards me. "So, Astrid, what are doing in school?"

"I'm studying political science." I said, trying to keep my back straight. "I'm trying to get into law."

"Law?" He repeated, grinning and nudging Hiccup in the side. "That's an excellent career path you've chosen. What type of law are you interested in?"

"Family law." I answered immediately.

Stoick chuckled. "That's a good choice, family lawyers are much more in demand these days." He continued smiling at me even as the appetizers came in. "Hiccup tells me you're on full scholarship, that's impressive, what did you get it for?"

"Sports."

He perked up. "Sports? What kind of team are you on?"

"I do a lot," I said picking up my fork. "I'm on the track team, the swim team, the lacrosse team, the tennis team and the soccer team." I looked down at the foie gras on my plate and took a small bite.

Stoick clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "Wow, that's incredible. I was into sports when I was your age as well, not quite as much as you though."

"Oh really?" I said smiling. "What did you play?"

"Mostly football, but I did play soccer in my first few years. Still, I love most sports, now a days I can only watch them."

I took another quick bite. "Oh? You watch? What do you watch?"

"Basketball, football, baseball...but mostly soccer."

"I _love _watching soccer."

* * *

><p>"I'm studying political science." She said. "I'm trying to get into law."<p>

"Law?" Dad nudged me with a dumb grin across his face. I knew that would make him happy, he was always the type of parent that tried to push me towards the typical successful careers, and lawyer was second on his list. "That's an excellent career path you've chosen. What type of law are you interested in?"

"Family law." She answered quickly.

He chuckled. "That's a good choice, family lawyers are much more in demand these days." My dad seemed to take a liking to Astrid surprisingly fast, everytime Astrid looked away he would flash me a grin or a thumbs up. "Hiccup tells me you're on full scholarship, that's impressive, what did you get it for?"

"Sports."

He perked up. "Sports? What kind of teams are you on?"

"I do a lot," She said picking up her fork. "I'm on the track team, the swim team, the lacrosse team, the tennis team and the soccer team."

Stoick clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "Wow, that's incredible. I was into sports when I was your age as well, not quite as much as you though."

"Oh really? What do you play?"

"Mostly football, but I did play soccer in my first few years. Still, I love most sports, now a days I can only watch them."

"Oh? You watch? What do you watch?"

"Basketball, football, baseball...but mostly soccer."

"I _love _watching soccer."

My head bounced left and right as they chattered on and on about sports. I was glad they were getting along, but I felt a little disconnected from them, I was never into sports, not even a little, so I hadn't the faintest idea what they were talking about as the conversation progressed. By the end of the night I had barely spoken a word at all.

"Soccer season is coming up you know, if you want to you could come and watch one of my games." Astrid suggested as the waiter took our dessert plates. "I think our first game is two weeks from now, on the weekend, I'll have to double check that though."

"That's a great idea, I'll try to keep the weekends open." My dad said nodding. I snapped my head around to stare at Astrid and then to look at my dad. I couldn't believe my ears, did Astrid just invite my dad to a soccer game? Did my dad just agree to save time to go? "Just tell Hiccup when you've figured out the date, you can remember to tell me right?"

"What?"

"The date, of the soccer game, are you even listening?"

I nodded awkwardly. "Right, yeah, of course."

Astrid looked at her phone and hissed. "Oh shit, sorry guys, I need to go, I have track at six in the morning tomorrow."

"That's alright, the limo should be waiting downstairs to take you home." He said standing up. I got up to follow Astrid but my dad put a hand on my shoulder. "Actually Hiccup, I wanted to talk to you a little more, the limo will come back for you."

I looked over at Astrid and she smiled at me and gave me a peck on the lips. "I'll be fine, you stay with your dad."

I nodded and watched as she disappeared into the elevator. As soon as the elevator reached the next floor my dad gave me a hard slap on the back. "Well done son!"

"Ow, what?"

"You sure know how to pick 'em." He said grinning. "Pretty, smart and athletic, what more could you ask for? What a great girl."

I rubbed my shoulder. "Uh, thanks."

"I'll be honest, I was surprised when I saw her. I didn't really think a girl like that was your type. But I'm glad you chose her." He ruffled up my hair "You better hold onto her, she's a keeper alright."

"I'm glad you're getting along and all, " I said sighing. "But don't you think it's a little early to be going to her soccer games? I mean, you just met a few hours ago."

He rested a hand on my shoulder. "I support you Hiccup, and I support your relationship. I want to make sure I have a good connection to the person you've chosen to be your girlfriend. One day she'll be a part of the family after all." He said moving to walk towards the elevator.

"A part of the family?" I waved my arms in the air and followed after him. "Don't you think you're being a little hasty dad?"

He turned to look at me. "You don't like her enough?"

"No, of course I like her, but, I mean, it's been two months dad."

"And a half." He corrected.

* * *

><p>I unlocked the door and stepped inside, there Ruffnut was already facing me, a sly grin across her face. I tossed my keys onto my desk and walked over to the closet to change. "Did you see me walk towards the building or did you hear me coming up the stairs?"<p>

"I saw you step out of a limo. So, you know, _damn._" She snorted. "I almost wish Hiccup was my boyfriend now."

I unzipped the back of my dress and shot a scowl in Ruffnut's direction. "We both know you're too picky to ever date a guy just for something like that."

"That's why I said almost." She leaned towards me. "Sooooo? How was it?"

I wriggled out of the dress until it fell to the floor. "It went great."

"Ooh? Great?"

"Yeah, Hiccup's dad is a really cool guy. We actually have quite a bit in common." I said hanging the dress in the closet.

"Whoa." Ruff jerked back. "Was _not _expecting that, what do you have in common with him?"

I pulled a shirt over my head and put on a pair of shorts. "He likes sports, he played football in university and high school." I flopped onto my bed. " Can you believe it?"

"Holy shit." She cursed under her breath. "I would've never guessed Hiccup's dad would be like that. I was imagining a successful nerd type, like Bill Gates or something."

"Well he's definitely nothing like Hiccup at all,"

"Yeah, I got that when you said he played football."

I rolled my eyes. "I meant he looks nothing like him, he's really big." I gestured my hands to try and show how big he was. "He was like, six-eight or something and he had a huge, and I mean huge, red beard."

"That's bizarre."

"I think you'll like him."

Ruffnut raised an eyebrow. "I'll like him? Am I going to meet him?

"Oh yeah," I said snapping my fingers. "I totally forgot to tell you, I invited him to my soccer game, so you can see what he's like then."

"You invited him to your soccer game?" She asked. "Why'd you do that?"

I sat up on the bed. "He said he liked watching soccer, and he just seemed so happy and excited that I was interested in sports, I couldn't help it. I really want to get along well with Hiccup's dad, I know I don't need his approval or anything but it'll be easier on Hiccup if he's supportive of us."

"So Hiccup's cool with this?"

I shrugged. "Why wouldn't he be?"

* * *

><p>"How was it?" I ambled into the room, roughly pulling my tie loose and kicking me shoes off. Fishlegs watched me as I fell face-first onto my bed. "That bad?"<p>

"It wasn't...bad." I replied moving my face out of the pillow so he could hear me properly. "It was just...I don't know, not what I expected."

"They didn't get along?"

I shook my head. "No, no, they got along great. They got along better than I ever could've imagined. They're practically best friends now."

"So...that's bad?"

"No." I said sighing. "It's not bad. It shouldn't be bad. Why would it be bad? After all it's what I wanted."

Fishlegs leaned closer to me. "But…?"

"I guess I'm just a little jealous." I said sighing and turning over to my side. "They have so much in common with each other and I barely have anything in common with either of them. It sort of felt like they got along better with each other than they do with me, I felt left out."

"Who are you Jealous of? Astrid, or your dad?"

"Honestly, I don't even know." I said rubbing the bridge of my nose, Toothless climbed up onto the bad and began purring and rubbing up against me. "Thanks, bud."

"Well, your dad is still a CEO and Astrid is still a student, chances are they won't have many opportunities to talk much."

I groaned. "Think again."

"What?" He asked furrowing his brows. "What do you mean by that?"

"Astrid invited my dad to come to her soccer game."

Fishlegs jerked his head back in shock. "Whoa, you weren't kidding, they really are like best friends. Do you think this will be like, a recurring thing or just one game?"

"I don't know."

"You should tell her about this." I cringed at the idea, and Fishlegs sighed, crossing his arms. "This is Astrid we're talking about here, not your dad, she'll listen to you, she'll understand. What are you so worried about Hiccup?"

"I don't know."

"If you just tell her that the game is making you feel uncomfortable I'm sure she'll cancel it."

I flopped a hand over my eyes. "I don't want her to do that, it'd be so childish of me to make her cancel it. I don't want to be like that."

Fishlegs shot me an exasperated look. "Well what do _you _want to do? Because I'm out of suggestions."

"I'm going to go to the game."

"What?" He asked scrunching his face up. "You didn't even like the idea of it occurring and now you want to go?"

I shrugged. "Tonight just made me think about how little Astrid and I have in common and it made me a little depressed. I should at least try to get involved in something she likes. Besides, I can't let my dad go to her soccer game without me, that's just a bit too weird."

"If that's what you think you should do."

"...you wouldn't mind, you know, coming with me would you?"

Fishlegs scowled. "Seriously? Your dad is going to be there, you don't need me."

"My dad being there is the reason I'm going to need you."

He slapped a hand over his face and groaned. "Ugh, fine. Don't ever say I wasn't there for you."

"Of course not man." I said grinning.

* * *

><p><strong>No cliffhanger this time! Woo! Sorry that there were so many in a row, I don't know where I will end the chapter when I start writing I just end it where is feels it should naturally end.<strong>

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Gaaaaah, sorry for being gone for sooo long! Lots of school. Lots of stress. Lots of writer's block. Not a good combo.**

**You guys know I would never leave you right? Well, I am back! Unfortunately, I can't guarantee I won't temporarily disappear again, but I'll always come back, promise. **

**I won't waste your time anymore, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Fishlegs climbed up onto the bleachers, plopped down beside me and extended his arm out to hand me a bag of frozen peas. I took it and placed it gingerly against my left temple, wincing at contact and sucking in a sharp breath. "If Astrid asks, I was beamed in the head with a soccerball, okay?"<p>

He chuckled. "There's only one ball Hiccup, and I'm pretty sure Astrid's keeping her eyes on it so that lie probably won't work out for you."

"You got a better idea?"

"Um, how about you tell her the truth." He said rolling his eyes. "So you fell asleep and hit your head on the bleachers, so what? She knows you're not into sports, she won't be mad about it. I mean, she was shocked you decided to come in the first place."

I glanced off to the side to where my dad was sitting, he was clapping and hooting with the rest of the onlookers and it made my scowl deepen. "If I didn't come, it would be like my dad is more supportive of my girlfriend than I am." I sighed and adjusted the positioning of the bag of peas. "All the things Astrid and I do together are _my _things, I should try and get involved in things she likes too...right?"

"I would hardly call Dragon Masters and Dawn of the Dragon Racers _your _things. Sure, you introduced her to them, but Astrid likes doing that stuff. She's not forcing herself to do any of it." He waved hand at me limply. "I think you're worrying about nothing, you never seemed to have this problem until your dad came into the picture."

"As logical as that sounds, it doesn't make me feel much better."

Fishlegs sighed. "I don't even understand what it is you're worried about happening. So what if they become friends, maybe it's a bit weird, but you two aren't exactly ordinary."

"Maybe I _want _to be ordinary."

"Ha!"

I glowered at him. "Ha? What is Ha? What's Ha supposed to mean?"

"You want to be with Astrid right?"

"Obviously."

"Then you don't want ordinary."

I looked out onto the soccer field and watched Astrid rush up to another player and steal the ball from her. Watching her reminded me of the first time I ever saw her, running track outside the dorms, she looked just as controlled and determined as she did back then. Her braid swayed back and forth just as it always did, and she raced the ball towards the other team's net.

"...Yeah, I guess not."

Astrid continued pushing forward and kicked the ball straight into the opposing team's net, the crowd cheered and my dad popped out of his seat and started clapping. "That's my future daughter-in-law!" He yelled out.

I immediately cringed and sunk into my seat. "Oh gods…"

* * *

><p>"Hey, nice one." I threw my towel over my shoulder and turned around to find Ruffnut standing behind me, leaning on the water cooler. "Looks like Hiccup's here to cheer you on, or I guess that's more his dad. I assume he's the big guy." She said pointing her thumb over her shoulder at them.<p>

"Oh, Ruff." I said brushing my sweaty bangs out of my eyes. "Yeah, that's Hiccup's dad."

She glanced over at them and snorted. "You weren't kidding, he looks nothing like Hiccup at all. I'm starting to wonder if he was adopted or something."

"How'd you guess then?"

"Well, it might have to do with him yelling out 'that's my future daughter-in-law' when you scored that last goal...or it could just be a lucky guess. Who knows."

I jerked my head back. "He yelled what?"

"Seriously dude? You couldn't hear him?"

I shrugged. "There are a lot of people yelling stuff, it's a soccer game. I have to learn to flush that stuff out anyway, concentration is key."

"Looks like you got yourself a new number one fan, kinda sad that it's not Hiccup, but his dad."

I squirted some water into a cup and chugged it down. "Hiccup isn't really into sports, I was super surprised when he told me he was coming, he's never watched any of my games before. I guess he feels it would be weird for his dad to watch without him."

I started heading towards the locker rooms and Ruffnut followed after me. "He looked pretty miserable out there, and his dad's cheering was not helping. Maybe you shouldn't invite his dad to anymore games."

"You think so?" I asked. "I was thinking this might be a good thing, you know, give them some time to spend together, I know they kind of have a rough relationship."

"Look, I don't know about any rough relationship or anything, I just know a miserable boyfriend when I see one." Ruffnut said sighing. "He had that look guys get when they get dragged to the mall with their girlfriends. Not a good sign if you ask me."

"Really? Should I talk to him about it?"

Ruffnut rolled her eyes and smirked. "You can try, but I doubt he'll say anything about it. That boy is insecure as fuck."

"No, no, he and I had a talk about this stuff." I assured Ruffnut. "He said he would tell me the next time was feeling hesitant. He knows I won't take it the wrong way, trust me."

"Trust _me_, if he was going to talk to you about it, he would've already."

I sighed and crossed my arms. "Alright, then since you're so damn smart, what do _you _think I should do about it?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Just because I can point out the problems doesn't mean I know how to solve them. Figure out your own relationship shit, it's not my job."

"Ruffnut." I growled, glaring at her.

"Alright, alright. That's not even the reason I came today, I have good news." I nodded, urging her to continue. "You remember that one coach? The one everyone makes fun of because he's always bragging about his connections to the olympics?" My eyes slowly widened, I could already tell where Ruff was going with this. "Well, apparently he might not be so full of shit. One of my teammates overheard him and my rugby coach talking about some olympic scout that might be visiting during the summer. And take a guess what he's looking for?"

"No."

"Oh yeah, track runners." A giant grin spread across my face. "Don't get your hopes up though, we don't know if this is legit, and we don't know if he'll like you. Even though he obviously will. I just thought you might want to know about it."

I began squealing uncontrollably and pulled Ruffnut into a tight hug. "You're awesome Ruff!"

She smirked. "Duh."

I gasped and pulled away. "Oh, gods, I have to start training."

"Wait? Now?"

"Of course, time is of the essence, I need to be ready when he arrives." I said before turning and running off.

* * *

><p>Everyone began unloading off of the bleachers as the players went back to the locker rooms to change. My dad smacked me on the back again, a feeling that was starting to become very familiar, and grinned at me. "You sure picked a great gal, Hiccup, I'm proud of you." I flinched at that comment. I'll admit it, it hit a nerve. "I have to back now, but I'll call you later alright?" I nodded without saying anything and he trotted off, whistling happily as he went.<p>

"Gods...he's such a...argh!" I growled in frustration and threw my hands down. "Did you hear him? That's probably the first time in forever he's told me that he's proud of me, and it's because of my girlfriend."

"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that." Fishlegs said in a gentle attempt to make me feel better.

I clenched up my fists. "He never makes time for _me _but of course, as soon as Astrid has a soccer game he comes running, and then as soon as it ends he runs off again. I don't know why he bothers spending any time with me when it's obvious he hates it so much."

"Oh come on, that isn't true and you know it."

"How would you know? You haven't had to deal with him like I have, he's always looked down on me, made me feel like I was a fuck-up or something."

Fishlegs looked at my sympathetically. "He's trying Hiccup. Your dad fucks up too, he just doesn't understand that these things bother you so much."

I looked away and sighed. "Lets just go." I muttered before heading off towards the dorms.

As we walked out of the soccer field, Astrid came sprinting out of the locker area and tackled me with a big smooch and a hug. "You will _not _believe what I just heard, Hiccup!"

"What?"

"There might be someone coming to scout runners for the olympics, isn't that great?" She jumped up and down excitedly. "I could be going to the olympics, I'm going to go to the gym, I'll see you later." Before I could even respond she was already off, running towards the gym to start training.

"Oh...olympics...great."

"Are you okay?" Fishlegs asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

He grabbed my arm. "I'm serious, just talk to her, nothing good comes from you avoiding things."

"I can't bug her now, she'll be too busy training, I don't want to harass her with my depressing crap anyway, it'll just cramp her style."

"Hiccup,"

I yanked my arm away. "It's fine. I'll talk to her later, when she isn't so busy. I promise, okay?"

"...alright." I could tell Fishlegs didn't believe me, but to be honest, I didn't even believe myself. Deep down I knew talking about it would probably make things better, and I knew Astrid wouldn't get upset over it, but it still felt so difficult to bring it up. It was such a lame thing to be upset over, to be upset that she got along _too _well with my dad. Even the olympics bothered me, and I felt so selfish that when I heard about it, all I could think was that she was going to leave me behind and I hated it.

* * *

><p>"There you are!" Ruffnut called out, she shuffled through the gym and walked over to me as I jogged on the treadmill. "I thought you already went to the gym today? I've been texting, don't you check your phone?"<p>

"Not when I'm running." I said through gasps for air.

"How long have you been here?"

"Like...two hours?"

"No, not in the gym, on the treadmill."

"Yeah."

She gawked at me. "You've been on the damn treadmill for two hours? In total? Or just now?"

"Just now."

"For odin's sake, Astrid, you need to take breaks now and again, you're going to burn yourself out, you want to be _alive_ when the scout comes right?"

"I need to work on speed _and_ endurance, so I'm prepared for sprinting and long distance, we don't know what kind of a runner they're looking for, I can't afford to miss this opportunity."

Ruffnut crossed her arms and scowled. "You're an awesome athlete dude, there's no way this will be your only chance to make it to the big leagues."

"No, Ruff. I literally can't afford to lose this. I have a full scholarship now, but I have jackshit for law school, and my parents definitely aren't going to finance it for me." I took a long breath of air. "I need to make the money somehow, but I can't get a job and keep my grades where they are. This is my best option."

"You should just use your uncles-"

"Absolutely not." I said abruptly stopping the treadmill. "That is not an option."

Ruffnut waved her arms around dramatically. "You're being ridiculous, he's obviously not going to use it anytime soon." I gasped at her harsh comment and I immediately grabbed my bag and stormed off. "Wait, Astrid, come on, it's not like that." She called after me.

I stopped without turning around. "Then what is it like?"

"You've got to stop dwelling on this one day. It's been two years already."

* * *

><p><strong>In this story I've been avoiding any OC's, what is everyone's views on them? Love them? Hate them? I'm considering using them for my next fic, so tell me what your opinions are so I can make a decision :)<strong>

**(If you are going to say you like/dislike them I would appreciate it if you could tell me why, thanks!)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Long time no chapter... sorry about that...again. I haven't given up on this story, still just busy with school stuff, and now we've started doing a lot of renovations to the house so I hope you understand why chapters are coming out so slowly. I'm planning on taking the coming summer off so hopefully that will mean more time for writing.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>I sat at my desk impatiently tapping my pen against my knee and chewing up my bottom lip. It was that time again, time to study for exams, and I was completely out of it, I couldn't concentrate properly on anything. Final exams plus the whole Olympics scout thing made Astrid's schedule completely insane and she was nearly impossible to get a hold of, I could barely manage to get her to reply to a text let alone meet up with me.<p>

I stuck the cap-end of my pen into my mouth and began gnawing on it. An feeling of constant irritation had built up inside of me and all I could think about was Astrid running off to the Olympics and my life going right back to where it started. I did not want that.

"If you're _that _hungry, I have a bag of chips you can eat."

My head snapped up to look at Fishlegs. "What?"

"Because you're chewing on your-, nevermind, it was just a joke." He said sighing. I turned back towards my desk and continued chewing on the end of my pen, this time I started to bound my knee up and down at the same time as I stared sternly at my computer screen. It only took a few moments of this for Fishlegs to speak up again. "You want to take a break? Go get a slice of pizza or something?"

"Not really."

"Right, okay." He said nodding. I turned back to the screen, placed the pen to my lips right before Fishlegs interjected again. "Okay, okay, you need to stop, your anxiety is really distracting. If she's going to make you this anxious and miserable why don't you just break up?"

"What?"

"Seriously, you haven't been able to study all week, are you willing to fail for a girlfriend?"

I scowled at him. "I'm not willing to fail for a girlfriend, I'm willing to fail for Astrid. Just, not necessarily like this. It's complicated alright?"

"Not really." Fishlegs huffed. "You're just mad because your dad likes Astrid better than he likes you, and that Astrid has nothing in common with you and will probably leave you behind to go train for the Olympics."

"Thank you for summing that up."

"You need to get out or something, you're not getting any studying done, you're distracting me and you look like you're slowly losing your sanity, why don't you go hang out with Snotlout and Tuffnut, maybe you'll learn something."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Fishlegs sighed heavily. "Let me put it this way, Snot and Ruff might be idiots who never think before they act, but at least they act at all."

I scowled. "Fine, whatever." I said grabbing my bag before shuffling out the door and locking it. I didn't need this shit, I already had enough to handle with my dad and Astrid, I didn't need Fishlegs snapping at me because of exams. I glanced over at Snotlout and Tuffnut's door and shrugged. "Why not, it's better than any other distraction I guess."

* * *

><p>I stuffed my gym clothes into my duffle bag and slung it over my shoulder, immediately wincing and dropping it back down. I groaned and reached up and began rubbing my shoulder tenderly.<p>

"Someone's been overdoing it." I jumped at the sound and whirled around. "Whoa sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, sorry sir." I mumbled.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Oswald is fine."

"Right, Oswald, sorry."

"Why are you still here? Track practice ended almost two hours ago, it's almost time for the football team to arrive." He asked glancing around the locker room to see if anyone else was still there.

"Yeah, that's why I'm going, I didn't want to…"

"Bump into my son?"

I grinned. "Something like that."

"You haven't been training this whole time have you?"

"I was." I admitted. "I'm just trying to be the best."

He laughed and slapped a hand over his belly. "You're as tough as they say, no wonder you were recommended for the football team. I wouldn't think you'd need to train so hard, you're already the best, none of the other girls can compete."

"Not to be rude, but I'm aiming a little higher than just this school."

He nodded. "Of course, that makes sense, you must be talking about the Olympic scout."  
>I gasped. "No way, is he real?"<p>

"I think so…? He's coming for track not football so I haven't heard too much about him, but I've heard quite a bit from the other coaches.

"Do you know when he's coming?" I asked eagerly.

His gaze moved towards the ceiling as he thought. "Hmmm, let me think about it, someone did mention something to me a few days ago...what was it?" Oswald snapped his fingers together. "Right, they said something about June, they didn't mention the day though."

"June? That's so soon." I exclaimed.

"Well it's not-"

Just as he began speaking my phone began to ring from inside of my bag. I picked it up and yanked my phone out to check who it was. "Sorry, I should take this." I said, Oswald nodded and smiled as I made my way out of the locker room. "Fishlegs? What is it?"

"_You need to talk to Hiccup, right now."_

"Hiccup? Why? What's wrong?"

"_He's driving me insane, that's what's wrong. He can't focus, he can't study, all he does is mope."_

"Why? What happened?"

"_Don't ask me, ask him. It's between the two of you anyway."_

"Where is he?"

"_I don't know, I told him to leave a little while ago, I thought he might be with you."_

"He's not, I was training."

"_Shocker."_

I sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll go find him. Bye." I said hanging up.

* * *

><p>I sat between Snotlout and Tuffnut, munching on a bag of chips as they watched mixed martial arts on Snot's laptop. It wasn't exactly my ideal friday afternoon but it kept my mind occupied, so I wasn't going to complain about it.<p>

"Dude, when was the last time we threw a good rager?" Snotlout asked.

Tuffnut shrugged shoving another handful of chips into his mouth. "I don't know, that party at the beginning of the year? It's been a while anyway."

"We have to throw one man, we're going to lose relevancy." Snot narrowed his eyes as he thought. "Is there anything to celebrate coming up?"

"Easter?"

"Didn't that pass already…?"

Tuffnut shrugged again. "Fuck if I know, I don't celebrate easter anymore."

"Whatever." Snotlout grumbled. "Nobody is going to show for an easter party, we need something better than that."

"Mother's day?"

Snot scowled at Tuffnut. "Shit dude, I need serious ideas here. Who's going to want to go to a mother's day party? I wouldn't, and I fucking love parties."

I sighed heavily. "Why do you need a reason to throw a party? Just throw one."

"Shows what you know man." He said scoffing. "There's an art to throwing parties okay, it's possible to throw one for no reason, but that's for amateurs."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure."

"I'll just look it up man," Tuffnut said walking over to his laptop. '"there has to be a few cool holidays coming up."

"Right, good idea."

"There are only two holidays in April guys, easter, and april fools." I said.

Snotlout clapped his hands together. "April fools! That's great!"

I chuckled. "It passed, it was on the first."

"Ah shit, we missed april fools again. I always forget about it."

"Oh hey," Tuffnut said leaning back in his desk chair. "Astrid's birthday is coming up, we can throw one for her."

My ears perked up at that and I looked over at Tuffnut. "Astrid's..? When?"

"You don't even know your own girlfriend's birthday man? It's the eighteenth." He replied.

I groaned. "Great." Only moments after those sarcastic words had left my mouth did I suddenly come to a horrible realization. The thought of Astrid's approaching birthday had given me the same feeling of irritation and dread as my father's birthdays had for so many years. The only difference was, where my father had caused the rift by his lack of communication, this time, I was the one to blame. I was the one who was failing to communicate. I sprung up onto my feet, much to Snotlout and Tuffnut's surprise and stormed out of the room. I couldn't let this go any further, the last thing I wanted was for my relationship with Astrid to deteriorate to the level it had with my father and I. I couldn't keep hiding all my ugly emotions from her, I had to talk to her, right now. I came down the stairs as quickly as I could and exited the building and looked around, I whipped out my phone and checked the time. Only three. She must be at the gym. I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and started speed-walking towards the gym. I cut through the parking lot and quickly continued down the sidewalk glancing around the street anxiously.

Not even halfway there, I noticed as I sped down the sidewalk that on the opposite side of the street going in the opposite direction, was Astrid. She was wearing her track clothes and carrying her gym bag as she walked at a hurried pace, she looked worried. I stopped in my tracks and cut off a car, trying to get across the road. "Astrid!" I called out.

She whipped her head around to look at me and relief immediately washed over her face. "Hiccup, thanks the gods." She rushed towards me and pulled me into a hug. "Fishlegs called me, I'm sorry I didn't notice you were going through something, I've been busy, and, ugh, I should've been paying more attention."

"No." I said sighing against her shoulder. "I should've said something about it, I promised I wouldn't keep things from you anymore."

Astrid pulled away and looked up at me. "What is it? You can tell me."

"I've just been…" I groaned. "It's really embarrassing."

She scowled at me. "Hiccup, what is it?"

"I was kind of, I don't know, jealous that you and my dad seemed to get along better with each other than, you know, you do with me."

"Oh, Hiccup…"

"It's dumb alright." I said sighing. "But seeing you guys have so much fun at dinner and the soccer game without me, well not without me, but it felt like I didn't need to even be there, like you forgot about me."

Astrid hugged me again. "It's not dumb Hiccup, I won't invite your dad to anymore soccer games alright? I didn't realize it made you so uncomfortable."

"It just, made me think about how little we have in common. We always end up doing the same stuff because there's not a lot else we both like to do." I pulled away to look at her. "And I got all insecure like I always do, and the whole Olympics thing made you so busy and I couldn't-"

She smiled and shook her head. "It's never been a problem before Hiccup, I don't pick my boyfriend based on the number of common interest we have. Yeah, I like sports. But you know what else I like? You. I don't need to being doing exciting stuff all the time, just hanging out with you is enough okay?"

I nodded. "You're right, I shouldn't have over thought it so much."

"I'm sorry I've been busy with working out and studying and all that crazy stuff." She said sighing. "I'll take a week or two off training okay? We can hang out, study together, do whatever."

I shook my my head and frowned. "No, no, I can't ask you to do that. This is too important to you, I don't want to be the reason you miss out on this chance."

"Oh come on Hiccup." Astrid said chuckling. "Do you think just a week or two would throw me off? I think I'll be just fine. Besides, you're important to me too, sports isn't everything."

"...Thanks." I said smiling bashfully.

She smiled back at me. "Come on, let's go back to the dorms. We can play some video games if you want?"

"Sounds good."


End file.
